Weekend Update

Here's a little piece I bought in an antique store in Pennsylvania over the weekend:


Click to enlarge.

It is cute and well-stitched. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch hex symbol -- this one is the Distelfink (a goldfinch or "thistle finch") and it is a good-luck sign. The Germans who settled in Pennsylvania painted signs like this to put on their houses and barns. I like these hex signs so I was happy when my husband noticed this one in stack of antique linens. Plus, it was only $2.00! I will have to do something special with it.

While we were traveling, I also did a little stitching:


Click to enlarge.

This is called "Delivering Flurries" and is a design by Homespun Elegance. I am crazy about cardinals and birds in general so when I saw this at my LNS earlier this summer, I snatched it up. It is stitched with Weeks flosses on (I think) Lugana. All the stitching is done now, but it's not finished because I still need to add two buttons for the wheels of the snowman's cart. Also, on the chart, the bird is carrying two ice skate charms in his beak. I don't know if I want to add charms, the buttons may be enough. If I do add a charm, it may not be ice skates. Maybe a basket? I can't decide.

I do have some pictures from the Sudberry House sale last weekend and I still plan to post a report from that. I got a great haul on some of their wooden pieces. I am wondering whether this snowman will work in one of the tea trays I got, or if the buttons will make it too bulky to go under the glass. There's a kind of wooden mat in the tray, under the glass, so it might work. Hmm.