LITTLE PINK HOUSES

Last night I did exactly what I needed to do....I started something new.

Out of all of the lovely selections that were in the Spinster Stitcher SpringTide basket, I decided to go with Love the Spring by Shakespeare's Peddler. I'm stitching this on a gorgeous piece of 32ct. Spice Blend Celtic linen from Stitches and Spice. (This is a new company to me and I can tell you that I will look for more of their stuff. Yum. Mee.) I'm also using Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors, so when you put it all together, this one is just like BUTT-A. (OK, all done with that now.)

As I stitched the little pink house in the lower right corner, I got to thinking about my whacky stitchy progression through the years. I'm actually a relatively new stitcher compared to most, and although the dates are fuzzy, I think I started really stitching about five years ago.

At the time, Aunt Chrissy was living with me and I'm pretty sure that she was so desperate to get me to shut the eff up already that she taught me to stitch. Then, to REALLY get some peace and quiet, she opened the attic door one day and said "I think it's time to finish off that bonus room and make it into a stitching studio."

And so we did.

My very first project was a Bent Creek house. I don't remember which one it was exactly, and I'm pretty sure that the finished piece is around here somewhere, but all I know is that it was a house. Houses were all that I wanted to stitch. Yep. Houses:

I have no clue what this one is, but let's take a little look-see, shall we? (Oh, come on. You know you want to.) This piece is stitched on 14ct. aida cloth and I used all of the DMC threads that the chart called for. Then, because I was getting really cocky after about three days of being a stitcher, I attached a birdhouse charm to the tree! (Gasp! Could it be that I was already breaking the rules so early in my stitchy career?!) You'll also notice that I put my CJ initials in the lower right corner. (I thought that this was a requirement and that if I didn't do it the stitchy gods would smite me.)

For the next piece, I got totally out of control and did a few specialty stitches! Woo Hoo! I also varied the number of threads that I used so that the piece would have "dimension". I thought I had discovered fire:



Finally, I did a piece with overdyed threads. I think that Aunt Chrissy was so tired of trotting me off to the local Hobby Lobby for supplies that she took pity on me and threw me a skein of Weeks Dye Works or Gentle Art. Once again, I'm pretty sure it was just to shut me up.



The house phase lasted for quite a while, and I'm sure that I could unearth quite a few more house pieces if I tried hard enough.

What cracks me up about this little trip down memory lane is that if you fast forward to Spinster Stitching circa 2010, I would rather clean the kitchen floor than I would stitch a house. As a matter of fact, I've been known to clean the kitchen floor as a means to postpone the task of stitching a house. Sheesh.

Aunt Chrissy's School of All Things Stitchy progressed me from 14ct aida and DMC floss all the way up to stitching over two on 36ct. linen and hand dyed silk. My real turning point, though, came when I was able to do a large Shepherd's Bush band sampler and I successfully read the chart all by my very self. (I made a ham sandwich in celebration of that achievement. I can remember it as though it were yesterday....it was a very good sandwich.)

So as I stitch this piece and enjoy it immensely, I'll be thankful that there's only one little house in this neighborhood and all it lacks at this point is a roof. And I suppose that I will stitch other houses in the future and that I'll bitch about those too, but at least I'll know that I came by my aversion honestly. And...if you ever see me pull out the Large Marge Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, you'll know that I've decided to lose my damn mind in one fell swoop.

I just hope there's a ham sandwich at the end of it.