A Gentleman's Samplings

It always amazes me how fast time goes by these days.  I did not realize that it had been so long since my last blog post. So I must thank you for hanging in there with me. I have been working on some Christmas ornaments over the last couple of weeks for exchanges. I will post pictures of these after they have been given to their new homes. When going through some of my older stitched Items I found a few ornaments that have been stitched but not finished. So I guess I will spend some time over the next couple of weeks on finishing -- which is not as much fun as the stitching itself. B.B. 1699 from The Essamplaire Worked on 40-ct Lakeside Navy Bean using AVAS Silk I have made a little bit of progress on B.B 1699 from The Essamplaire.  This is a great little piece.  B.B. made very good use of the piece of linen.  And there are only 10 colors used.  It is going a little slow because there are a lot of places where the stitches are off set by one linen thread.  The house has a lot of a

First Up -- Something Old  After finishing Mary Allen 1818, I deciced that I needed to get back to work on my Celtic Wallace and Robertson Sampler by Darleen O' Steen .  I have finished part one (Wallace) and working towards getting the second part (Robertson) finished by the end of the year.  I am waiting until all of the stitiching is complete before filling in all of the metallic thread areas. Celtic Walace and Robertson Sampler Stitched on 40-ct Lakeside Mystery Fabric using NPI Silks I am really liking this sampler because it is a challenge with all of the queen stitches. As most of my stitching friends know, queen stitches are (or were) one of my least favorite stitches.  But now that I have the hang of working them they are not too bad. Now if I could only get the hang of doing detached buttonhole I will be able to get back to some samplers that I really want to start and complete.  Something New -- In my last post I stated that I was going to start  Scarle

Once again I must thank all of you for your kind words and comments on my blog. I have meet some wonderful people in this venture who share the same passion for needlework. I was really surprised when I went to compose my blog post today and noticed that I have 199 followers. I will put something together for a little drawing so please stay posted. We finally have some decent weather in Texas (no +100F days since we had a cool front that moved into the area last night). Our high temperature for the day was only 81F and expected to get down into the low 60s overnight.  I could get use to this but we are expected to get back into the lower 90's by the end of the week.  But it is still try (no measureable rain received or expected) leaving us still in a severe drought situation. So we are still praying for rain. My goal was to finish Sampler's Rembered Mary Allen 1818 by Labor Day and I put the last stitches in on Saturday, September 3. Again, this was a fun sti

It is still really hot here in North Texas. Luckily August is nearly over with and hopefully September will bring us some cooler temperatures along with some much needed rain.  We have only had around a half inch of rain in the past three months. So hot and dry leaving everything really brown. And all this heat really drains your energy level. But -- I did manage to get the pre-stitching completed on the Patrick's Woods "A Spot in the Mountains" class piece.  The finishing class is in mid-September so I wanted to make sure that I got this completed early. A Spot in the Mountains by Patrick's Woods Worked on 30-ct linen with NPI silks The band on the left with the Florentine stitch will be finished into a tri-fold pocket.  The accessories (on the right hand side) will include a needle case, a canoe shaped pin cushion, and a scissor protector. These were a lot of fun to stitch and looking forward to finishing them. In my previous post I said that I was go

I finally finished my reimagined Mary Wigham samplar at the end of last month. Mary Wigham by Needleprint Stitched on 40-ct Light Examplar using HDF Silk As stated in a previous post, I saw a finished one done in three colors and really liked it more than the original colors. I did change the wording in the center motif to reflect the year that it was stitched and included initials from members of my family. I am currently splitting my time between the Patricks Woods class piece and Elizabeth Sheffield.  I will post updated snaps once I make a little bit more progress.

Greetings from North Texas where it is hot, hot, hot! It has been above 100F for over 21consecutive days with little rain. I created a blogpost at the beginning of June but never got around to taking the pictures for the blog post. So here goes... I finally finished the Frances Eden 1809 Sampler by Handwork the first week of June. It was a fun and colorful stitich but took me a little bit longer than normal to complete.  It is larger than I thought it would be. I still need to personalize it with my name and year but I am counting it as a finish. 1809 Frances Eden by Handwork Worked on 40-ct Examplar Lakeside Linen using HDF silks After completing Frances Eden, I decided to start Mary Wigham from Needleprint. I had started this using the recommended colors but was not really happy with how it was turning out. But then someone posted a picture of theirs using just three colors (gold, red and brown). I really liked the way they translated the design into a different color way.

Hello to all my fellow stitchers, followers, and friends -- I cannot believe that it has been over a month since my last post. Seems that time has gotten away from me once again. My goal for April was to start and finish Frances Eden, Unfortunately, I was not able to reach that goal mainly due to business travel and enjoying the great weather that we have been having in North Texas. I have been spending a lot of my spare time working on out flower and herb gardens. I was hoping to get some raised vegetables beds in place this year but looks like that will have to wait until the fall. I was able to get a lot done though on Frances Eden 1809 from Handwork Samplers. 1809 Frances Eden by Handwork Worked on 40-ct Examplar Lakeside Linen using HDF silks I really like the colors in this one but do not like having to do the same motif twice in the same colors. I did get a little bit bored so to shake things up a little bit I picked back up Elizabeth Sheffield from Scarlet Letter around t

My new start for April is the 1809 Frances Eden by Handwork. The colors on this are really bright and a lot of fun. 1809 Frances Eden by Handwork Worked on 40-ct Examplar Lakeside Linen using HDF silks I nearly have the house completed with the exception of some adornments on the roof. I hope to make better progress this weekend and show another progress picture next week. Thanks to all for the comments on my posts and finishes. They are most appreciated.

Hello fellow stitching friends. I meet my goal for March - to finish City Stitcher's Adam and Eve..  Last stitches put in around 10:30pm CST on 31 March.  I was determined to get this one done. This was a fun and quick stitch.  Not as large as some of the samplers that I have worked on in the past months. Adam and Eve by City Stitcher Worked on 40-ct Examplar Lakeside Linen with HDF silks I am now working on Francis Eden by Handwork. It was hard to resist this one after seeing the finish by Margaret  and the start by Nicole . These two ladies are big enablers. I am currently in the middle of traveling to Tasmania, Australia so you will have to wait for a progress picture. I did start this in the lower left hand corner. Hard to resist that house with the angels on it.  I will post a picture once I make a little bit more process. Have a great weekend.

Spring has finally arrived in North Central Texas with some great weather. That along with the end of Daylight Savings Time allows for more time to spend outdoors getting the flower beds and the rest of the yard in order.  The sampler guild which I belong to hosted Stacy Nash of Stacy Nash Primitives on the 12th and 13th of March.  I did not preregister for this class because I did not know if I was going to be in town or not. Luckily my scheduled worked out and with a little bit of arm twisting from Michelle , I was able to get a kit from someone who was not going to be able to attend.  I got the stitching done fairly quickly on both the drum and needle roll. On the first day of the class we learned how to assemble the drum and age it with a walnut dye. We also learned how to create a strawberry to accent the top. On the second day we learned how to assemble the needle roll.  With a little help from my table partner Betty, I was able to learn how to prepare and stitch the fabric