Happy New Year

New Years Eve here will be quiet. We plan to go out to Chinese dinner then home for movies on TV and noise. I bought some noise makers and horns for my girls so that should be fun for them (not me...I like quiet). I will have a glass of wine and my DH will have a beer and that will be that. I never was one for a loud, wild party and either is my DH, plus we have two children now (10 and 4).

I have been rotating on my three unfinished projects. I should be able to finish Shady Day by Sheepish Designs this weekend. I will take this one to get framed. Unless I give items as gifts I don't like to work on projects that are not keepers. Meaning frame or pillow quality. I plan to start another project. I like to have three projects in my rotation. Anymore, and I am overwhelmed.

Happy New Year!!

Sampler, samplers

Oh, how I love samplers. I think about them a lot and I wanted to share the progress of my Jane Turner sampler. It is very slow going since it is so detailed and large. I am just piecing away at it a little at a time. Anyone that has completed this sampler? I will keep you updated on my progress.

Any takers for the Valentine's exchange I posted?

Enjoy your day!!

Monday Morning

It was a wonderful, somewhat peaceful Christmas for me. My girls didn't wake up until 8, we opened presents, I made homemade pancakes then we went to church. After church my girls played and played and I got in some stitching time. Before long it was time to prepare the ham along with mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, bread and lastly the red velvet cake I made on Christmas Eve. It was lovely, all in all.

My DH gave me three pattens from Scarlet Letter that I asked for, coffee, a bath set and a Johnny Cash CD. Just what I wanted!!

I am not sure what we will do today.

This year is going to be a sampler year for me and I would like to work on a needle accessory set such as this one from Beardie Designs.



Have fun and be careful in the crowded malls.

Exchange Valentine's Day

Good Morning!!

I would like to set up a cross stitch Valentine's Day exchange. The exchange would include a small cross stitched item plus anything else you would like to include. The shipping date for this exchange would be no later than Feb 1. Anyone would would like to join please send me an email. Deadline is Jan 7, 2006. I will send you the address of your exchange partner on Jan 8. Thanks.... It will be fun!!

I went to visit the friend in my cross stitching group on Tuesday as I previously wrote. She is an avid miniaturist and her home will filled from top to bottom with miniatures, doll houses, crafts supplies, quilts, cross stitch. It was really interesting to sell all the crafts projects she has completed. I dream of a craft room, she has a craft house...

Above is a picture of Woodland Christmas available from Withmyneedle

Enjoy and keep warm, friends.

Stitchalong

I have committed to join a stitchalong for the Sarah Tatum Quaker sampler from Scarlet Letter. I am a member of a Sampler Board located on Ezboard. It is a great group for the sampler enthusiast.

The stitchalong with begin on Jan 1. That does not leave me much time to get my things together. I may use the 40 ct linen or may change to the 35 count. Not sure. I hope others will join also.

It is cold, cold, cold here. It is only 17 degrees this morning. I do hope my DH is dressed warm enough and not to cold as he is driving to work this morning. It is another Christmas vacation day for my girls. We are visiting the house of one of my real life stitching group members this morning. She is an avid needleworker, candymaker and crafter. She is advanced in age and she is very talented so I am looking forward to visiting her.

Enjoy your day and keep warm.

Monday

The above is a small design I completed last summer from Blackbird Designs. It is from the book Tokens of Friendship. This book is one of my favorite cross stitch books. Each design is more beautiful than the next.

Today I have not had time to stitch. It is the first day of Christmas vacation and both of my children are home for the next 2.5 weeks!! With that said I need to relax a bit before dinner preparations.

Good bye for now friends.

Sunday Morning Couching

Good Morning friends,

I purchased a beautiful sampler from The Essamplaire and it has a lot of 'Couching' on it. I never did couching so I had to look up examples. It doesn't seem to difficult, but definitely something to practice before working on the sampler itself.



This sampler has a lot of specialty stitches that makes it interesting and very detailed. I can't wait to finish up Shady Day by Sheepish Designs so that I can begin a new project.



Enjoy the day!!

No Show at Cross Stitch Dinner

Okay, I picked up a fellow member of the cross stitching group and we drove to the restaurant. Noone else showed up?!? The two of us had a wonderful dinner though. I wondered what happened. I was disappointed, but since I am a newcomer to this group I won't get to involved.

I wanted to share a website I found that lists the current craft sales Jo-ann Fabrics. I will watch this site to catch some great buys there. This website bargainstrike.com lists current promotions at a lot of other great shops also. Nice!!

Enjoy your evening friends.

Cross Stitch Group Christmas Dinner Tonight

Tonight at 6pm my cross stitch group will be meeting for dinner at a local Italian restaurant here in Knoxville. It will be fun to get to know the other group members better and eat in an Italian restaurant with all adults who share the same interests.

I belong to two cross stitch groups. One is the group I will be meeting with this evening. The other is a sampler group. Next Wednesday the sampler group will be having their Christmas party at a fellow group member's home. I plan to attend.

I have never belonged to a stitching group before. I am enjoying it.

I have been working on Shady Day and thinking of what my next project will be. However, an 17th Century Reproduction Sampler looks good to me. I ONLY work on projects I love. I don't waste time on something I won't want to hang up on display in my home. Life it short.

I am leaving you with a picture of the Cookies and Cream cake that my Father-In-Law sent us Swiss Colony. We received the cake yesterday and it was delicious.



It is called Cookies & Creme Log.

Enjoy and be peaceful.

Drawn Thread

I have always been interested in Drawn Thread. Last night I was reading a pattern by Darlene O'Steen of Needle's Prayse. I do not see that she has a website. I could be wrong. The pattern I was reading was Secret Garden. As you can see it is a beautifully detailed sampler with over 18 pages of insurrections. However, there is a Drawn Thread section that I don't have much experience in. I was thinking of just doing the Drawn Thread section as a test before I do the whole sampler. Her samplers are beautiful! Great work Darlene.

I have been working on Shady Day by Sheepish Designs and it has been a pleasure to work on. I love the sampler threads and I have even added some silver threads to the curly designs. Please see my previous posts for a picture of this sampler.

It's cold and I am feeling like Christmas. Shopping is done and mostly wrapped. Comments are welcome.

Have a peaceful day.

Putting Aside a Project

I decided to put away the Scarlet Letter Jane Parish sampler for a little while. I made an error and I have some ripping out to do. I am not to happy to rip out work and thankfully don't do to much ripping out while working on projects.

I did however pick up a small Quaker piece to work on. It was a freebie and I will post the picture when it is complete. I am a big fan of Quaker samplers. The motifs, like Nordic motifs are beautiful, intricate and give me a sense of completion after working each one. I am using a 40 ct linen. I may make it into a small pillow, though I am unsure.

I own the Hannah Beeby 1816 Sampler pattern and I do hope to work on it soon. Below is a picture. I have been putting it off because it is so small and I usually like to work on larger projects. I don't know what I would do with this if I finished it.



Have a peaceful day, friends.

17th Century English Samplers Again

I am still thinking about 17th Century English Samplers and how beautiful and intricate they are. I like the long, narrow band. Some of them measure as much as 40 inches in length. However, because of their long, narrow length sometimes the fabric itself will start to slip down when framed. Some framers put braces on the back to support this occurrence. The 17th Century English Sampler I completed is starting to slip.



The above sampler is from Scarlet Letter. It is a 17th Century Band Sampler titled Mary Hurst 1661. I own the pattern and it is the next reproduction sampler that I intent to work on. I will be doing this sampler in silks.

Have a wonderful day, friends.

17th Century English Samplers

This is a 17th Century English Sampler from The Essamplaire. It is beautiful and so detailed. I am particulary drawn to 17th Century English samplers. The samplers on this website are amazing. This is by far one of the best, if not the best, website for reproduction samplers.

As stated in a previous post I have completed a large 17th Century English Sampler. The name of that sampler was Marie Abbott. It called for a lot of running stitches and is truly an amazing work of art. I like to use the colors of threads that the original designer used. I may change one or two colors, that's all. I purchased Marie Abbott from Scarlet Letter.

Have a wonderful day, friends.

Needle Roll

I found a picture of a beautiful needle roll on Romy's Blog and I am trying to figure out the purpose of the needle roll. Are they used like a pin cushion? Whatever the purpose they are beautiful.
Below is a picture of a needle roll from Shepherd's Bush. This neele roll is called English Christmas. They have beautiful patterns of lot's of needle rolls to chose from.

Rose Sampler

It's early Sunday morning and I am up with my youngest daughter. She can't sleep and either can I. However, I wanted to share a lovely sampler kit that I purchased through ebay.com. It is called Rose Sampler and it is by Butternut Road. The verse reads, When this you see... Remember me... The colors are beautiful and the intricate design is what caught my eye. I also like the fact that it is a kit and I don't need to go and buy fabric and thread. I wish more designers would do that.



One of my cross stitching groups is meeting for Christmas dinner at an Italian restaurant in two weeks. I will attend. It should be fun to have an adult dinner with other cross stitchers.

Enjoy your Sunday, friends.

Sheepish Designs

Yesterday morning I had time to visit my LNS Double Cross in Knoxville, TN. They don't have a website. However, it is one of my favorite places to visit. They have a huge selection of sampler patterns, linens and already made samplers hanging on the walls. What makes it most special is the shopowner Carole. She is very knowledgeable and so kind....

I bought lots of sampler threads and this great pattern that I have had my eye on for awhile know. It is from Sheepish Designs. The name of this pattern is Shady Day. I am going to stitch this little sampler on a 40 ct New Castle vintage looking linen.



Here is another beauty from Sheepish Designs




This pattern is called Lydia Foster and it is an antique reproduction piece. I love the colors of this sampler. It is loaded with eyelit stitches though!!!

Have a peaceful day, friends.