List #11: 1995

I'm going out to dinner this evening, and I don't know when I'll have a chance to illustrate this one. But I will; I even own some of these!

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By 1995, I had completed graduate school coursework. I get to the grindstone. {Or not.}

• December 31, 1994 Jingle Bell sweatshirt, Lorraine Birmingham. Real and stitched jingle bells on a sweatshirt for my grandmother. From the Leisure Arts Spirit of Christmas books. I think this one got left off the last list because I entered my projects into the book by the start date, not the date of completion. Whoops!
• February 1995 A Star Danced birth sampler for my college roommate's baby. Again, no sampler for the sibling. I thought I was so sophisticated using all this colored aida!
• June 21, 1995 Family Collector Series: Wedding Sampler from Cross Stitch Sampler magazine—the magazine folded before the third in the series came out. This was one of the first projects I got advice on from the internet. The sampler contains Bosnia stitch, and the directions weren’t that good. I posted a question on rctn, and a woman answered. Later that month, I went to SoCS at Valley Forge and sat next to her! So I was able to show her the fruits. This was stitched for a grad school friend.
• June 25, 1995 Midwinter Portrait Sheila Tune Upham from a magazine. Stitched for another aunt when I picked her name at Christmas. At least she still speaks to my father.
• September 1995: Santa and His Little Helper, Alma Lynne. Man I loved the Alma Lynne. This one is on blue aida that I ordered from a store listed in the back of JCS. It was a shower gift for my cousin (the one we lived with). For some strange reason, I didn't include any means of hanging this so she drapes it across the coffee table every Christmas.
• [September 19, 1995. Now we know when I started Majestic Rooster!]
• September 28, 1995 antique button pocket pendant, CA Wells at the Sacramento SOCS. I love this little thing. I don't know why I never use it or wear it. CA is big on using your stitching; I am small on it apparently.
• November 1, 1995 Gifts of the Heart, Stoney Creek. Beaded within an inch of its life! Not my taste, but my sister liked it enough to take it in and give it a good home.
• November 1, 1995-November 19, 1995 Ship at Sea, Clover Hill Needlworks. I think this may have been my first pattern I stitched with GAST. I made it for my MIL whose father was a lighthouse keeper.
• December 1995, “Heart of the Month Wreath” from some Leisure Arts book or another. Many colors of aida cloth. The hearts were supposed to attach with hook and loop tape to a frame, but it never worked properly. My aunt stuck them all in a basket. Cute!
• December 28, 1995 Samplers of the Month, December—birthday samplers by Linda P. Reeves in JCS. Stitched with waterlilies for Auntie Em (the aunt I refer to as "my aunt" without any reference to my father. She's my mother's sister and the mother of my cousin who took us in when we moved to PA and the grandmother of my neices.)
• December 30, 1995 Simple Elegance Sampler, Betsy Stinner. I stitched the central motif from this sampler on a wine coaster for my dad.
• 1995 A Special Couple Needle Treasures. I chose this wedding sampler for my cousin because photo on the kit (kit!) listed the same church that my cousin got married in. All those effing color changes!