My Latest Addiction

I must admit that I have a problem with....picture frames! Whenever I go into Goodwill,
a garage sale or rummage sale, I am on the lookout for picture frames.
I only have a couple of requirements when I'm looking for them. 1. - They must be made of wood and 2. They can't cost more than $1.00. At most garage sales the 5 x 7 and smaller only cost 25 cents. I've even purchased a few for 5 cents - what a bargain! When I get them home this is what I do to them:

1. Sand them lightly to rough up any finish so the paint will adhere better.

2. Paint them with 2 coats of Lamp Black paint from Olde Century Paints. (Any paint will work - my personal favorite is Olde Century)

3. Sand them lightly again, especially around the edges to distress them.

4. Apply a gel stain. I again use Olde Century - Pecan. It happens to be the background color in the photo above - It's the finish on my wonderful kitchen floor.

Now I add them to my stockpile and as I finish up a stitchery I can usually find a frame that works. The following are a few things I've stitched up over Christmas break:


This stitchery is from http://primitivebettys.blogspot.com/Thanks Betty for all of your wonderful patterns. I stitched it on Irish Linen over 2 threads, my favorite medium. I did tea stain this when complete, but the flash has washed out almost all color from the stitching.

















This one is a little hard to see, but it says Primitive on the inside star. The larger star is blue ticking blanket stitched to the muslin background. The smaller star is muslin blanket stitched to the ticking star. I coffee stained this one.









This one is a free pattern from www.Patternmart.com, it's from Stacy Nash. Simply go to FREE and you'll find it. Stacy has some great patterns. I stitched this one on Onsaburg - it was not easy, but I love how it turned out. This one is coffee stained too, a little heavier since you can see the splotching in this photo. I especially like the "Ohio" stitched on it since that is my state! Emma was the name we had picked out for child number 3 who turned out to be Daniel!

This last one is "Old baskets", one of my favorite things! I simply wrote on a piece of fabric my words and then stitched over them with DMC3371 - dark brown. Again I coffee stained this one and it sits on top of a cupboard with this antique ash basket in my dinning room.

Happy New Year.