A Bluestocking Knits

Actually, it's Mesa, a two-hour or so drive north of Tucson, but there it is.  When David proposed the idea of a trip to visit our friends, I said, "Oh, and maybe we could stop by The Attic in Mesa …?"

(We can also recommend The Cornish Pasty Co. a few doors down, where we lunched afterwards.  It's a bit like a slightly down-market pub inside, but don't let that put you off, as the food was delicious.  I had bangers and mash in a pasty, a kind of British-food double-whammy!)

But The Attic, oh, The Attic!

Regular visitors here might recognize the piece above, the "Quaker Virtues" by Bygone Stitches, my version of which I finished almost exactly a year ago, but for a moment, I did not.  It isn't so obvious in the photo above — I should have put my hand next to it for scale! — but it is tiny, tiny, worked at some astonishingly small scale, I hesitate saying 70-something but it may very well have been 70-something.  An amazing accomplishment, and I salute the stitcher!

A treasure trove.  Oh, I had thought my eyes lit up at the sight of the wall of framed samplers, but this is like Aladdin's cave — and there is more on revolving racks nearby.

Since I didn't have a list in hand for charts — only for threads and fabrics — and the whole shop leaves one in a bit of a daze (of delight, mind you!), I decided to focus my attention on smaller designers that I don't already know about.  A model for "Ann L. Burton" was on the wall, and stayed in my mind as I walked around the shop.  I enjoyed the perforated-paper embroidery piece I did last spring so much that when I saw packages of papers I chose the ecru to take home with me.  Another stitched model on the wall was "Sarah Welch, 1764," which is a new release from Cross Stitch Antiques, not a "small designer new to me" but I was charmed enough to pick up a copy.  And for the other, I have seen images and details of other stitchers' versions of this Mexican band sampler every so often for a few years now, which kept growing on me, as it were, but I could never find it for sale, and so just as I was saying to myself, "I should stop now," I asked one of the salesladies about this and without much trouble at all, she said, "This one? or this one?" and I said, "Yes!"  I don't know why it is so difficult to find — I searched "Mexican Band Sampler" and "W: A Mexican Band Sampler" and Needle Work Press's website with no joy — but now I've got my own copy.

Quite absent-mindedly, I had forgotten to write down the thread count of the linen I wanted for an upcoming project, so I made a lucky guess, really, and somehow got the correct one to use with the "Rosewood" Gloriana, at left below.  I like it best on the "Summer Khaki" that it's on in the photo, and so the "Mushroom/Light Mocha" [sic] will wait for something else.  The other silks are for another chart I hope to start this year as well.

I had taken a small workbox with me for our visit, and so sitting around in the evenings, I basted and sewed up some more diamonds and stars for my patchwork —

And as a thank-you to our friends, I worked a little cross-stitch piece when we got home — I had come across it quite accidentally, but it fit the bill very well.  It is "Arranging Cacti" by Ink Circles, and is conveniently — part of what sold me on it — designed to fit into a 5×7" frame.  I had a suitable piece of 30-count linen (in "Mariner's Map" Legacy Linen), but not a single one of the recommended Gentle Arts flosses, so I rummaged through my box(es) of threads and came up with some fairly-logical alternatives —

• for Hibiscus, I used Cranberry (except for the prickly pear blossoms, which I did in Classic Colorworks' Gingersnap, just because)
• for Shutter Green, I used Jolly Holly
• for Mountain Mist, I used Dried Thyme
• for Endive, I used Weeks Dye Works' Kudzu
• for Pecan Pie, I used Piney Woods, though I ended up eking it out with Walnut, a very similar shade but with more variation)

I think it looks perfect in this frame, which is a basic-but-stylish one from Michael's — Laura cut the mat opening a little larger for me, a risky proposition but she did well.