Monthly Archives: February 2017

Story Time Sampler – Little House Chart!

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The last time I shared this project was waaaaaaay back in March of 2015. I love cross stitch. It is the craft I’ve done the longest, but it is slow. Slower than knitting. I have this problem with buying kits and then losing steam. The Story Time Classics stitch-a-long from The Frosted Pumpkin was a project that started off great. I completed the first 3 clues right on time, but then it got put aside for over a year.

Looking back at Instagram I now see I started working in the sampler again in July of 2016. Cross stitch is a good summer time project. The light is better and holding linen on your lap is much more comfortable than wool. I finished Story Time back in September 2016 and it has been patiently waiting to be framed ever since.

Sorry sampler, your wait just got a lot longer. In December The Frosted Pumpkin announced a 3rd sampler in their book series AND I got the kit for the 1st sampler as a Christmas gift so at this point I think I’ll wait and frame all 3 at one time.

I’m a pretty big fan of The Frosted Pumpkin style. It is cute and their taste in books really connected with me. So many of the stories were loved by my childhood self. I mean they even put my besties Anne and Jo right next to each other!

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However I’m not the biggest fan of their original pick for August (Phantom of the Opera). So I swapped in another one of my favorite characters, Laura Ingalls. I’m a huge fan of pioneer fiction and it didn’t seem right to leave Laura out of the party. I took to excel and managed to work out my own pattern for August. Picking a part of the story that would fit in the frame was tough, but I settled on Laura and Jack following the wagon train as a recognizable scene.

If you’d like to swap Laura into your own Story Time Sampler just follow this link. The lovely ladies at The Frosted Pumpkin said it was okay as long as I only posted the part I designed. One tab with has a design with Jack and one without.

 

Rayon Appleton

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Whew! Time is flying by. The first draft of the post was written when I was feeling worn down by the news, but a great weekend has boosted my spirits!  Today I’m here to share a dress I finished back in January. A beautiful reminder of our fantastic family vacation to San Jose for Thanksgiving.

At this point my winter wardrobe is in pretty good shape. I have several skater style dresses, some more casual knit dresses, a couple of skirts/sweater sets, and a couple of wrap dresses. That’s enough to see me through our short and mild cold season. But I couldn’t help squeaking in one more Appleton Dress before spring arrives.

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I love this dress so very much. After trying 4 different fabrics with the Appleton pattern rayon is hands down my favorite. It just has such great fluidity and drape. It is so smoooooooooth. I also love the way it feels against my skin.

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That said I was picky about the rayon I choose. I made sure it was a decent weight so it wouldn’t be too sheer. Also went with a dark color. Rayon will show every wrinkle and seam in your undergarments. The deep plum color helps mask those issues.

This version also has a lot of vertical stretch so everything falls a little longer than my other versions. I don’t mind, but it did put the hip shaping lower than I anticipated. Oh well, it is very minor and doesn’t detract from the overall look.

I purchased this fabric at Britex in San Francisco while my husband and I were on a rare childless outing. Here it is modeled with my new spectator pumps. Such a fun outfit to wear to work and shake away those winter doldrums.

And now back to the work week, but lots of fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks!