Finishing doesn't have to be expensive...

This is the Downton Abbey freebie that I finished on Sunday evening.  I decided to frame it, and I hope to eventually have several of my favorite quotes from the series charted, stitched, and hanging with it.  So framing it required that I find a frame that would blend easily with other frames that may be purchased a year or more after this one, and that wasn't too expensive.

This is a frame I already had in the house.  It's one from Wal-Mart, and it cost $3.  In addition to coming in a range of sizes, it's a basic deep cherry/mahogany color with gold trim, so I should be able to find other frames in the coming years that will look good with it.

I would have loved to have used a gold oval frame with this, but when I was looking for one online everything I found was both too simple, and too expensive!

I'm very happy with the way this turned out.  Not bad for a 100% stash project!

Frugal can be fun, and beautiful!

I'm having such a good time with my frugal project--and I think the project is developing quite nicely.  Here's the latest update on Sense & Sensibility:

Sense & Sensibility

The Sampler Girl

I've not bought--and I'm not going to buy--one single thing to use in order to stitch this project.  My sampler won't look one bit like the cover model, but that's OK with me.  I'm thrilled with the way it's turning out and I don't even mind that it's taking a bit longer to stitch than it would have if I had just made a run to the store and bought exactly what the chart called for.   There's been some trial-and-error, and a few things that might end up being tweaked at the end (those dormer windows just don't really show up--I may just take them out entirely, or change the color of the window sashes) but when it's over I'll have a sampler that's really MINE!

So if you haven't tried frugal stitching, go look at your stash, pick out a pattern, and come join me!

Freebie Friday--French style!

Did you miss the beautiful Sampler aux Bluettes when it ran last year?  If so, here's the link to the page where you can download all the charts:  SAMPLER AUX BLUETTES.  This could be a beautiful way to use up plenty of scraps of floss!

I hope you have a great weekend of stitching--I've been making some great progress on my frugal projects, look for updates on Monday!

Don't forget...the SAL has started!

The bookmark SAL over at Les Croix et Moi has started!  Go print out your chart and come join me!

Freebie Friday!

Like cats?  Then check out this site!  http://aurorenono.over-blog.com/article-grille-chat-35-97333417.html

Even if you don't want to stitch cats, check out the site.  There are plenty of other great freebies there, too!

a new SAL

Carole over at the Novalee02 blog has proposed a new SAL to start on January 20.  It's an adorable bookmark, and I've decided to stitch it using--you guessed it--supplies on hand (otherwise known as STASH)!

You can find all the information on her blog:  Les Croix et Moi

Friday freebies

Freebies are a great way to stretch your stitching dollar, and thanks to the internet and computers, there are more freebies available than ever before.

No matter what your taste, or stitching style, or skill level, you can find wonderful freebies 'out there'.  Here are a few of my recent favorites:

From Tam's Creations --her blackwork freebies are wonderful!  I've printed both of them out and I plan to get started on them this year.

Broderie.net--Jean-Louis Grandsire sends out a newsletter every weekend with a new freebie in the newsletter that is only available to the newsletter subscribers AND he posts 2 small freebies on his site each week.  So go check out his site and be sure to sign up for the newsletter while you're there!

And even though she's not still posting new freebies, Gazette94 has left her blog up with all of her wonderful freebies.  If you see something you like I would suggest downloading it just in case she takes down the blog one day.

frugal update

I did some Frugal Stitching yesterday.  I spent most of the day on the Sense & Sensibility sampler, but I don't have much to show for it.  Some frogging because I got off 1 thread coupled with several frogging sessions while trying to decide what color to use to stitch the lettering, and then the small bit of stitching under it, ate up much of my stitching time.

Choosing floss colors from scratch can be a time-consuming task!  But I'm very happy with the look of my sampler so far, so the time spent on color selection has been well worth it.

I also started another frugal project last night.  This is the Downton Abbey freebie that was offered last year on The Sampler Girl's blog.  I started it while watching Downton Abbey last night, and I'll work on it again next Sunday evening while watching the next installment.

I pulled some 35 count undyed linen from my stash and then pulled a few colors of HDF silk floss that I thought would look good together.  I'm very happy with the results so far.

So, any frugal stitching going on out there?

Needlepoint, anyone?

Are you interested in learning to needlepoint?  You want to try something new, but you don't want to have to invest too much money on supplies or a chart, and you need instructions that are clear and easily understood by a beginner?

Then head over to Laura J. Perrin's blog:  The Two-Handed Stitcher.  Laura is a very talented needlepoint designer and she's been offerings a series of small, ornament-sized mini-mysteries on her blog.  She started posting them in November 2011, so just scroll back to the first one and get started!

I haven't stitched one yet but I do have all the charts printed out so that when I get to start a new project I can stitch up at least one of these darling designs.

My first frugal project

I've started my first frugal project...This is the Sense & Sensibility sampler from The Sampler Girl.  The chart was pulled from my collection of Jane Austen themed charts, and I"m suing some 28 count evenweave fabric and silk floss from my stash.

Sense & Sensibility Sampler

The Sampler Girl

28 count mushroom evenweave

Silk floss from Hand-Dyed Fibers

I'm pretty certain that my final version of the sampler won't be even close to the original color-wise!  I want to limit my floss choices to what's in my silk box, so I'll be picking colors as I go along--my biggest challenge will be the lettering because I need so much of whatever color I pick.  It will be a fun experiment, and I'm sure that I will love the finished piece all the more for being so very personal.

EMS sampler freebie

Are you interested in stitching a beautiful, traditionally-styled sampler this year, but you're not interested in paying the price that so many reproduction sampler charts fetch?  Then perhaps you would like to join the new SAL over at Ellen Maurer-Stroh's website.  The 2012 project is a lovely sampler composed of traditional sampler motifs (similar to the motifs found on Berlin-work samplers), and Ellen is making it available to us for free!  You can find a picture of the sampler, as well as all the information needed to stitch the project, on the EMS website:  2012 project
I've already downloaded the information so that I can stitch this one day in the future.

Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Day here, and so it's time to begin implementing those New Year's Resolutions.   I'm sure that some of my resolutions are the same as yours--declutter the house, and save money.

Well, we're going to do BOTH here at The Frugal Stitcher!  We're going to save money because we're going to stitch out of our stash whenever possible and because we're going to be using up stash we're going to be making progress on that decluttering resolution.

Sound good?  Then grab your stitching, fix yourself a cup of tea, and come stitch with me!