Sarah Holmes Buck

This is an antique sampler that I purchased several years and I finally finished reframing it!  It's finished in the same manner as the Immigrant Sampler and I kind of used it as practice for framing that piece. 

You can see from the piece that it has a dark stain near the top and is faded, some spots more than others.  Also, the sampler isn't dated so it wasn't worth much but I liked it so added it to my collection of exactly 1 antique sampler.   :)

It's also curious that the last band is a different color, so either the personalization was added later, stitched in a different fiber or were sitting so it didn't fade as much as the rest. 

When this sampler arrived it was glued into the frame that it came in.  I removed it from the frame and carefully removed as much of the glue from the linen as I could.  I then found this teal fabric to back it on but before I did I sewed a piece of muslin to the back of the sampler to help stabilize it and to prevent the blue from showing through too much.  I think it turned out well and looks nice hanging in my living room with a bunch of other blue samplers. 

Sarah used cross stitch, eyelet stitch, rhodes crosses, cross stitch over one, rice stitch, queen stitch and satin stitch in her sampler.  I've though about charting her just to see how that would go but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I'd rather stitch or stamp!  LOL! 

Here's a close up of her frame, also purchased from Lynn's of Madison:

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends, family and blog readers (although many of you fall into one of the first two categories)!  I wish you a day filled with family, friends, good tidings, cheer, peace and happiness! 

Stocking Card

I love this card!  I designed this for a swap that I participated in with my home group of demonstrators back in September.  I know, I'm a bad blogger for waiting so long to post this, oops!  This card is made by using a 6 x 12" piece of cardstock folded in half and then running it through the Holiday Stocking die (124098).  if you place the fold just below the top of the stocking in the die then you get a card that can be folded open instead of having to write on the back.  I embossed the front of the stocking with the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing folder (120175) and added a mini jingle bell (124116) as a finishing touch.  Enjoy!

Don't forget that your last day to order items from the Holiday Mini Catalog is January 3 so don't miss out!

Broccoli Band

I know, some of you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about.  Well, I've spent some time recently stitching the bottom, inner band of Elizabeth Sheffield.  The picture on the pattern makes it looks like this band contains giant broccoli or else really little animals.  I know that they are supposed to be trees with giant animals but I've had it in my head that this is broccoli so that's what I thought about when stitching it.  Take a look:

With any luck I'll finish her around the New Year so my New Year's start can be the only thing I'm stitching on for awhile.  Oh, and I decided that Paradise Lost will be my New Year's start.  I still have the band with the people and house which will take awhile but I'm almost done with the bottom of the sampler.  I decided to wait to stitch the people for last because I think they're going to be a lot of fun!! 
Here's my overall progress on Elizabeth...

The Immigrant Sampler

Several years ago, 2005 actually I attended a Great Lakes Regional Seminar in Illinois.  It was actually co-sponsored by my chapter, Needle's Nest.  I took this great class by Lucy Lyons Willis called "The Immigrant Sampler".  I enjoyed stitching it with the dove's eye flag, hardanger band, and just the colors and the way it came together.  However, the neat part was that Lucy suggested that we do a little bit of family history research and add the initials and whatever other information we could find about ancestors who had immigrated to the US.  I didn't pick the first of my relatives to come over but rather picked a family on my father's side who arrived in 1864 on a ship named "The Stella".  Those are their initials, the year and the ship name all in the band with the ship.  I also wrote up the history that I found and put a copy on the back and another copy inside the backing paper. 

You can see by the date that I finished stitching this sampler in 2005, the same year as the class but I just finally framed it and hung it up in my living room.  It looks great there!  When I finished it in 2005 I also completed the hem stitching but the way it was designed it was to be mounted on the teal backing fabric and then mounted in a frame.  Let's just say that I'm a good procrastinator and put off stitching it to the teal fabric until a few weeks ago.  I'm somewhat sorry I did too since it looks great and was super easy!  And, as I was stitching it to the backing fabric I was able to straighten it quite a bit.  With all the open and hardanger work the sampler had somewhat wobbly borders but it's much better now!  I actually have another piece framed this same way and I did both of them in a day to get them out of the guest room where my parents were going to be staying at Thanksgiving and it was suprising at how fast and easy this was.  I guess I just needed guests in order to get it done! 

Baby Quilt

OK, so I found a photo of the baby quilt I made.  This is actually the second or third quilt that I started and the first one that I finished completely.  I just LOVE these bright colors!  This is me with my friend Kristin, the new mom to be and the recipient of this fun quilt! 

In this photo you just get a taste of the quilt but the baby is a girl so I picked bright colors with pinks but not all totally pink.  This quilt is machine pieced and quilted with a hand sewn binding. 

Here is a so-so quality photo of the back of the quilt.  It's an adorable green and pink check/gingham print.  However, the quilt was a bit larger than the fabric wide.  Because I didn't want to even attempt to piece the back together, instead I cut it about 1/3 of the way down and added a pieced strip to give me enough width that I could quilt and bind it into the finished product. 

Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler Framed

Here it is, all framed up!  This is my Mystery Sampler by Birds of a Feather, stitched by me on 35 ct WDW Tin Roof fabric.  Enjoy!

Shopping Spree!

I was home a few weeks back and went over to my favorite needlework shop in Wisconsin, Lynn's of Madison.  I ordered a frame for my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler and also picked out a few new treasures.  I need a new project like I need a hole in my head but it sure was fun to shop and add some new projects to my stash!  I love seeing these photos so I thought I'd post one here.  :) 

Finished Smalls

After finishing a few larger pieces I stitched a couple smalls.  Here are some photos to share:

The first is "Pray for Peace" by Birds of a Feather.  I started this on 9/11 as a way to remember those whos lives were tragically lost 10 years ago:

The next piece is a scissor fob by Ewe and Eye and Friends, I stitched this just because I've had it FOREVER and needed a little project to stitch:

Lastly, is a project that was handed out at a retreat at Fanci Mats and More, a local shop in the Denver area that I went to.  It was all kitted up and a very quick stitch, it is called Boo-Yah by Cherry Wood Design Studios:

 Of course, all of these projects need to be finished, I plan to make the pink piece into a scissor fob and the other two will become pincushions (in all my free time)...

Birds of a Feather Finish

Here is my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler completed!  I stitched this on 35 count WDW Tin Roof Linen with the called for sampler threads.  On this darker linen I did change the alphabet to Bark to match the color of the tree trunk and changed the key to match the color of the birds' beaks (Olive?).  I am really happy with how it turned out and will have a framed picture for you soon! 

Struggle?

On a recent business trip I took along a small project to stitch on the airplane.  It is a kit called "God Bless Those" and was designed by Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler.  I like to start stitching in the center of a piece and I did just that with this piece.  Well, I noticed after a couple letters what I would end up with and it made me laugh so I snapped a quick photo and am sharing it here for your enjoyment!  Maybe you have to "get" my sense of humor, but seeing this stitch up the way it did, it gave me a good laugh when I really needed it!

Here's the finished piece: 

Elizabeth Sheffield

I mentioned awhile ago that I had plans to start Elizabeth Sheffield.  Well, she's started!  I'm stitching her on 35 count WDW Straw linen with DMC floss.  This chart was created by The Scarlet Letter and had both a cotton and a silk conversion.  I am stitching all the over one in full cross stitch as charted but I think that if I had stitched in silk it would have either needed to be tent stitched or stitched on a different count of fabric.  Even with all of the over one stitching I am enjoying this stitch immensely!

I'm a bit farther along than this now but stopped to take a few photos.  I'm so ready to stitch the band with the people in it, but decided to jump down and do some words since that tends to be a bit boring.  I did however stitch in the people's shoes so I know where to begin when I get back to the people , aren't they cute? 

I have a bunch more over one to stitch, including the light blue alphabet above the verse, several more blue flowers and the plants and animals in the bottom of the center section.  However, even with all the over one, I'm really enjoying stitching it and it looks so cute to have all those teeny tiny stitches. 

In fact, when I purchased the supplies for this, one of the women working at Lynn's told me that the blue bird in the top right corner is just spectacular.  I didn't doubt that so I couldn't wait to start stitching.  Well, I started with the darkest blue to outline the bird, continued with the medium blue and it wasn't until I got to the lightest blue that I could really appreciate how wonderful this blue bird really is.  What do you think? 

New Year's Start

OK, OK, I know that it's not the new year yet.  But, I've heard of a tradition of stitchers starting a new project for the new year.  Now, I am a one project at a time kind of girl but I'm thinking of partaking in this tradition.  I'd start a new project and work on it for a bit and then go back to Elizabeth Sheffield and then finish the new start.  Boy, I don't know that's kind of stressing me out just thinking about that!  But, I want to give it a try and who knows, maybe I'll have Elizabeth done by then, she's been going quick anyway! 

These are the two options I have ready to go, one is "Paradise Lost" by Plum Street Samplers and the other is "Ann Grant" by Shakespeare's Peddler.  Both are kitted up with linens and silks and I'm leaning toward Paradise Lost since it's been next on my list for some time and keeps getting bumped out for other projects like Frances Eden and Elizabeth Sheffield.  But, I also really like Ann and am considering stitching several Ann's and doing a whole wall of Ann Samplers.  Others on that list include Ann Smith and Ann Dale. 

So, what do you think?  Before anyone gets the funny idea that I should start both let me remind you that I'm a stitchin one at a time girl and I think it would stress me out to no end to have three projects going!  But, I might be able to start the second one here after Elizabeth is done... Hmm, I'll think about that!