TAST week 30 Buttonhole Wheel & Seasonal Swap

One of the pieces I worked on this week was to piece and stitch half a 'finished' size 8" square for the CQForNewbies Season to Season - Fall swap. As you can see I haven't quite finished my half but I am working on it. The gorgeous deep red hand dyed lace at the top was received as a goodie from a swap on another list and the lace at the bottom, although it looks sort of white is in reality a medium blue and is one of the pieces I've dyed. The seam I've stitched is worked in Ginnie Thompson Flower Thread, which is one of my favorite threads. Next I have to load the photo onto the home page photo album set up for this swap and finish my half. Not sure yet what I will do.

For my Buttonhole Wheel TAST stitching this week I worked two samples. The first one you see is worked on muslin colored polyester and the left hand "flowers" are my first attempt at this style of flower .... I think it is called foxglove. The stem is a chain stitch worked in a deep green #5 DMC perle with the pink flowers stitched in DMC #8 pink perle. In my hubby's desk drawer I found a small packet of templates ..... he was an electrical engineer designing motor control panels for GE for over 40 years .... these small templates are just the right size for many cq designs and I used one of those designs for the triangle shape of the pink flowers. The design on the right was drawn with one of Carole Samples templates and is one of my favorite seam treatments. Usually I work the whole seam in one color but I've just received some Sassa Lynne threads and really wanted to try them out so I used two different ones for this design. I must say I was delighted with how smoothly these threads stitched and have to tell you they have moved to the top of the list of my favorite threads.

I wish you could see this last sample in person as the colors are just gorgeous. Here, again, I used the Sassa Lynne threads for the hollyhocks and the greenery at the bottom is stitched with #5 DMC perle. These flowers are stitched on 28ct cashel linen and this design is one of my favorites so far in the TAST challenge. It is also my first attempt at hollyhocks.

Right now two of my loves are vying for my attention. About 25 years ago I became involved in genealogical research spending sometimes 20-30 hours a week traveling to county courthouses and genealogical libraries. Wonderfully fascinating. When my hubby retired and became ill I had to postpone the traveling part and went to the web to research (not near the fun nor satisfaction). Then when his illness grew worse I gave the research up altogether including attending family reunions (which we'd been attending since before we were married) and switched to my other love ..... needlework. It is family reunion time and I've begun participating again in the sharing of family history and in a few weeks I hope to again begin visiting courthouses seeking those elusive bits of family history. I have written and published two histories for my mothers' side of the family and now I need to concentrate on my hubby's surname. It was his desire that I write his family history as well so that will take some of my stitching time until bad winter weather sets in. Since it is the middle of summer right now I have several good months of research time ahead of me.

Although I am supposed to be participating in Sharon's newest class Sumptuous Surfaces the desire to get back to my research is stronger and I must follow my heart. At least I will have all my notes so that when I can stitch I will have the information I need. Also the forums will provide me ideas, inspiration and answers. It is a class I will complete, just not in the designated six weeks. Right now I just take one day at a time.