Saturday, March 16, 2024

March 2024.....

 ~ Many Greetings and a Warm Welcome to my Blog ~

Well....
another month has passed and let's go with what has been going on around here!

I framed myself Santa of the Forest by Lavender and Lace - Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum

Here he is in his frame I chose: 

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We painted our living room in his honor: 

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Valspar ~ American Restoration Color: Fairmont Suite Gold


We created a "gallery" wall of a large portion of my stitching AND bought new canvas prints of our family: 
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Thought I'd show you my "Paula Vaughan" half bath: 

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AND...my "Patriotic Room"...
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Here's some stitching I've been working on recently: 
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DMC 2/2 on Zweigart Platinum

Will look like this someday:
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Started my next EPIC Santa: 

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DMC 2/2 on 28 ct. Vintage Country Mocha

He will look like this someday: 

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Worked on my Prairie Schooler Angel Project: 

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Here it is to date: 

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Would you like my charted "Gloria in Excelsis Deo"? 

Remember please: GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE! I'm not a "designer" but I took my time to chart for ME and I SHARE with you.

Started and finished this little gem: 
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"Here Comes the Robins" by With Thy Needle and Thread on 32 count vintage country mocha called for colors. finished into a flatfold. Gifted to a dear friend that was going through a rough time. 

NOW....for the big project: 
My daughter, Katie, is pregnant. She is due in July. We do not know the sex. We will not be finding out. We are Catholic, so infant Baptism will happen. I and all my babies were Baptized in my Grandfather's Baptismal gown that my great-great Grandmother made before his birth. It is now 125 years old. Sometime after Ellie's Baptism the gown had to be retired. It had gotten tissue paper thin and it was close to ruin. So a relative who has possession of it, repaired it and framed it in a shadow box. My grandfather's lineage was German Catholic. He had 8 siblings and each of his siblings had children some of them up to 12. All of my mother's generation had a lot of children and were Baptized in the gown and all of my generation's children were Baptized in the gown. So there were many, many little babies dedicated to Christ in that beautiful, handsewn gown. 

It wasn't really "fancy" as it was made by a woman who had very little. Made of cotton and some lace it was a long 36 inch gown fall with a under skirt full slip. There are several sets of twins in my family line - my own being one of them. When twins were born to the family, one twin wore the gown and the other wore a white undershirt and the slip (as the slip was sleeveless.) It was beautiful and of course a true heirloom and family treasure. 

I want that for my lineage and future generations....so I decided I was going to make one like it as closely as I can to the original. Am I dressmaker? No. Have a sewn clothes before? Yes, limitedly...I made some scrub tops when I worked and a couple of just plain jumper dresses. That's the extent of my knowledge. 

I bought an Antique pattern that was fashioned on a dress from the early 1900's. I read and read. Researched. Watched videos. Read some more....

YESTERDAY....I decided enough was enough and I needed to just jump in. Following are photos I took over the last 24 hours. 

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Practicing Whip and Roll lace hemming and some very poor attempts at embroidery: 

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Showing I really liked my pin stitch I decided the top of the lace edge needed: 

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Bullion Rosette with 12 perle DMC cotton

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Bullion Rosette with 1 strand of DMC cotton:

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Here they are in comparison:

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Imagine a neckline of little rosettes: 

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Shell Hemming: (this is all hand sewing)

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So....Here's what I happened in the last 24 hours:
1. Got Started.
2. Realized I think I'm going to need more fabric because I'm likely going to make this thing 4 times over until I'm satisfied.
3. Bough a bolt of fabric - better safe than sorry.
4. Pre-washed and dried bolt of fabric.
5. Cut out the underskirt slip.
6. Started sewing.
7. Did French seams!
8. Started doing Shell hems.
9. Crying is cleansing.
10. More crying is even more cleansing.
11. Thought: why in the hell did I think I could do this?
12. Prayed.
13. I AM GOING TO DO THIS!
14. Figured out rolled and whip hems with lace edge.
15. Wanted a more decorative pin stitch along the edge....got it!  (on scraps)
16. Took A LOT of notes.
17. Went to bed at 1 am.
18. Up at 6 am after dreaming about a better way to go about this.
19. Realized underskirt number one ispractice and I learned a lot. 
20. Practiced bullion stitch roses....12 pearl? 2 strands of DMC? Found 1 strand looks best....Imagine along the neckline of underskirt....
21. I'll begin again. And make it better!
22. I hope....

I have shared my progress with others online.....I try to ALWAYS be encouraging. I never give my opinions, unless asked. I KNOW I am not the first person to ever do this. I KNOW that I have much more sophisticated sewing machine than there was 40 years or even 100 years ago. I KNOW I am lucky that I have these tools at my disposal. I DO NOT think I know everything. AND if I have one more person tell me that they embroided the names of the babies that wore the gown they made...I AM GOING TO SCREAM! 

I know that people are trying to be helpful in most cases....but honestly...do you all ever have a vision and you are trying to make THAT VISION a reality? I don't want someone else's vision or ideas. I have my own. One thing I am doing is creating a little drawstring bag that will house a journal that I will put all the details good and bad of my creating this heirloom. I will ask each child wearing the gown to have their name and parents name, date of birth and date of Baptism, name of church and priest Baptizing the baby to be put into the journal and kept with the gown. I have thought very hard about all of the details. 

In closing...
I had my 4th Chemical Peel, February 27....here I am the day of the 4th peel: 
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here I am now....
not bad for a middle aged, chubby woman, I'll take it!

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Thank you folks for sticking with me and being my friends! 
Thank you for your encouragement!
Thank you for your friendship!
Thank you for loving stitching and crafting as much as I do!

I'm going out to lunch....
 with a young church friend of mine that I sponsored during her RCIA journey. She's 26 and I'm sort of a mother figure to her. I am going to put all of this sewing aside, have a great time with my friend. Come back and TACKLE this gown again. 

Until Next Time....

Love in Stitches, 
Vonna xxxx

Friday, February 02, 2024

I had to share….my BIG finish!

~ PRESENTING ~

 “Santa of the Forest”
By: Lavender and Lace, Marilyn Levitt Imblum 
~ 50,000 stitches 
Measuring 15 x 18 inches
On 18 count natural raw linen
2/2 DMC and Kreinik 002HL








I am so proud! I have ordered the frame and a triple mat:

I wanted rich, classic and clean.
Everything should be here by February 15. Exciting!
Thank you for sharing my joy in this epic finish!

My next Santa project? 
From Treasures in Needlework Magazine  ~ Summer 1992 
“Santa’s List” 


This photo is a picture of my friend’s finish - Cathy Lundgren
Isn’t it beautiful?! 

~ to be started soon ~ 

Until Next Time…
Live in stitches, 
Vonna xxxx






Saturday, January 27, 2024

Ending 2023 and beginning 2024.....

 

~ Greetings and Warm Welcome to you, my friend! ~ 

I once again have been gone too long from this space.
So I will do my best to update you on the happenings *briefly* of what went on at the end of 2023.

~ October 4, 2023 ~
Ian married Kamdyn in a beautiful ceremony on their property in Bloomfield, Indiana:

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It was a beautiful day, a little windy, a little chilly but my heart was full and we gained a wonderful new daughter to welcome into our family!

They honeymooned in Arizona and Utah...and at one point we had Pfeiffer's across the USA

Utah: 

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Keith in California: 

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Katie in Washington, DC

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and Ellie and I was keeping the home fires burning in the Heartland :)

~ During all this going on this fall ~
Ellie met, and I am just telling you all straight up what I believe to be, her life partner - Joseph.

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He's 22 (Ellie is 18), out of college, established in a career (Computer Network Engineer), CATHOLIC (!), his family and ours share the same values, traditions and he loves cats! 
Does that not sound like God's perfect choice? 

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and best of all...he's fits in perfectly, I really love him already too...and he's just the bees knees! His Mom and I (never met in person yet - they live about 1 1/2 hours from us) but I can already tell she will be a dear friend to me as we text all the time. You can really get to know someone through their words and actions toward your child. She is a loving and caring person. His Dad the same way...and obviously a wonderful example of how to treat a lady because his son treats my daughter like a queen. Just a wonderful, beautiful thing that has happened for Ellie! Keith and I could not be more pleased. 

~ Here is the one photo I got of us at Christmas ~
I'm always too busy flapping my jaw and playing games. 

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~ We found out before Thanksgiving ~
and I kept my jaw unflapped until their big announcement when they were firmly in the 2nd trimester! (what a feat for me, right?!)

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Our little blueberry (that's what we have been calling the baby) because one day early in the pregnancy Katie said, "it's the size of a blueberry" so "Little Blueberry" it became 💓

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I am slowing down my business in 2024, not going to be finishing as much as I have been the past 10 years. (This year I finished over 500 pieces) One of the reasons I will be slowing down is because I will be the Granny Nanny for little blueberry. Lil' Blueberry is due here in July! We do not know the sex yet and I won't be sharing it once we do know it. 

~ Now we are in 2024 ~
and it's been nothing but GRAY all year so far. I am sort of depressed (to be completely honest)....
I typically don't get this way, as I just love hearth and home, but the sun hasn't shown in like 3 weeks and I'm tired of rain....and the gray.



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~ Red ~ 
had his first health crisis of his life. He has had this cyst under his arm pit for most of his life. We have kept check on it at all his yearly vet check-ups....but shortly after New Years, we found the cyst had grown to the size of a golf ball...was hard and stunk because it had burst. YUCK!

He had been acting oddly and I smelled something got to checking him all over and then ! found it. 

Called the doctor, couldn't get in for 3 weeks. They gave me an antibiotic to give him orally and it got worse. I thought he was likely septic. He was like not acting right mentally, had zero balance and I felt it didn't look good for him. 

Finally got him into the doctor - they took him as a "work in" one day. 
He was septic, they clipped, trimmed and cleaned the wound as best they could....I had to do hydrotherapy with him for a full week (yeah, just like what it sounds like - a cat in the water....yeah it was everything you are thinking right now). They gave him 2 shots of antibiotics and a round of injected anti-inflammatory drugs and.... here is a shot of him this week: 
Looking just as handsome and healthy as ever!
Red will turn 15 on April 23. 
(since we just lost Chatty last March...I was afraid we'd lose Red) 

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Sophie (Ellie's girl) and Augie (my other boy) are playing nice together finally...
Augie is the guy everyone likes to beat up on (I mean it's a thing in the animal kingdom you have an Alpha and you have the low man on the totem pole)
Red is the top, Sophie likes to think she's the top and Augie is clearly the bottom....
Sophie is 3 and Augie is 8 (I can't personally believe that) but those two have the best time running around and fighting, pouncing, attacking (playfully) each other. Even old man Red has gotten into the play. It's good to have a mix of ages of cats, I think. 

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~Stitching, finally ~
I have basically done zero stitching since July....one of my intentions for 2024? Get back to stitching every day...I had never NOT stitched for days on end from the beginning I started stitching. Heck, as a break in college I stitched every day, when I had little babies I stitched every day...I have ALWAYS stitched since I began stitching in my early childhood. Not doing so for weeks, months...was frankly a little awful, but for some reason I could not bring myself to do it. 

~ This January ~
I set out to restitch some Santa Faces from Mill Hill. Now I've stitched all of these before, but I had given them away as Christmas gifts to people I love. So here they are:
All four are from:
Mill Hill - Charmed Santa Faces
Two are from Series I and Two are from Series II

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I still do not have 
Santa of the Forest - Marilyn Leavitt Imblum
finished...but here is a photo from this morning...and I have made significant progress from the last time...(check out my last post)
I started stitching the Wolf the first week in January...
I'm going to stitch on him all day today...and tomorrow...maybe I'll close in on a finish!

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I've been collecting a lot of Mill Hill kits and I have a master box of Mill Hill beads that as I get done stitching a kit I will add into my master box. Here is my system. I get the handled double stack box  (see the trays the little boxes fit into - well there are two layers of them) and then I buy the "Tic Tac" boxes both sold at Michael's in the storage container aisle. 
I cut out the Mill Hill number from the bead package (or write one on paper) and tape it to the Tic Tac boxes, then fill them and put them in numerical order. I like organized and I like to know what I have and do not have so when I am kitting a pattern I can go to my master box of beads and see if I need to order or not. Also the Mill Hill kits come with a LOT of beads left over and if you save them...you can likely re-stitch the piece again. That's what I did with the ornaments...I didn't need to buy any beads because they had enough already left over and saved from the kits. So inquiring minds - this is how I do my beads. 

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~ Finishing 2024 ~
I am still finishing, just not going breakneck speed. I'm doing only 1 large order per week or 1-2 orders if they are smaller. That's all I'm going to do from here on out. Boundaries...I'm learning is good for the soul and the mind and body too!
But here is some of my January finishing for my clients:
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Thank you my friends for hanging with me!
I truly am going to try to swing in here once a month - if not more...
And I am trying to do one video per month as well...so if you want to actually see and hear my hillbilly voice go on over to my YouTube Channel @vonnapfeiffer and sit with your beverage of choice and have a chat with me :) 

All my love in stitches, 
Vonna xxxx