A New Cross Stitch

Two days ago , I started a new project . My husband is the family genealogist. Because of this, when his Mom passed away, he was given all the family mementos. This included two wonderful pictures of his Grandparents. We think the pictures were taken for their marriage. I wanted to do something to honor them. I decided to stitch a sampler with their names and wedding date. I do love Blackbird Designs and they often suggest ways to personalize their samplers. I collected all the "Anniversaries of the Heart" series. The last one, Elizabeth Jane , had a bonus pattern called "for those recorded here." We thought it was very pretty and it had a good space for adding information. So that's the one we chose. I'm changing 3 colors so it will look good in the dining room where the pictures are hung. The 3 colors that were suggested were too pink. My room is more of a cinnamon color, so I chose threads that will compliment that color.

Here is the lady known by my husband as Grandma Boo. Her name at this time was Edna Bandina Johnson. These are old frames with old convex (curved outward) glass. Sorry for the glare!

Here we have James Washington Witter. He died when Jim's Mom was very young.

Here is the cover of the chart that I'll be using.

Here is the bonus pattern. As you can see, there is quite a bit of writing so I hope to have room for their names , the place where they were married , and the date.

I found a new source of thread. As I have mentioned, prior to my new discovery, JoAnns was my only local source for thread. That meant I had to take my chance with colors and order online. A nearby quilt shop has stared carrying a few cross stitch supplies(Thank You) !! They have Weeks Dye Works threads and Gentle Arts threads. They also have a small but good supply of linen. The shop is located in a small town called Port Gamble, WA. The picture shows a very nice 2-ply thread they carry. It is great to work with and the colors are super. They have several shades of a color sort of like the Needlepoint Silks.

The first motif is done and this does show my color choice.
Thanks for taking a look. If our plans go as we hope I'll have some great pictures to show tomorrow!

The Finish

Last night I finished my latest cross stitch project. I thought I'd get the pillow made today but we got busy with other things. My goal will be to have it done before the end of the weekend. We are pretty much stay-at-homers on New Years so I'll have lots of time to work.
I don't often write about what I'm reading , but I like that in other blogs so if I read something worth a comment, well, here goes. The SBA and I have listened to "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett this week. I have been waiting for it for quite a long time as I had it on hold at our library. It got about 3 1/2 stars at Amazon and that's about what we would give it. I wanted to love it but didn't! It did seem to plod along a bit too much. We thought she added things that were not needed. Not a bad read, but not a great one! Well, that's just our opinion. I'm now reading "Those Who Save Us" and am finding it really interesting. I also liked "Sarah's Key." Guess I'm on a WW2 kick.
Well, that's about it. Hope you are all having a great between holidays week!

In the background, you can see the fabric I bought to finish the little pillow. We have a wonderful little quilt shop in Poulsbo that has lots of lovely fabric.

Here's a close up of the heart. It has been lots of fun to stitch-never boring! Again, the pattern is from Just Cross Stitch magazine Jan./Feb 2010 . I stitched on antique ivory Belfast linen 32 ct with DMC 3777.
Thanks for joining me.

Lighthouse-the day after Christmas

If you have followed this blog for awhile, you will have seen many pictures of the Point no Point lighthouse. In the summer the SBA and I serve as docents. The Friends of Point No Point decorated the lighthouse for Christmas. We finally got out there to take some photos. It is such a beautiful peaceful place. Today , however, it was cold and rainy. No walks on the beach today. We also saw the Victoria Clipper on its way back to Seattle. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is the keepers house. It was built in 1880. Today the National Lighthouse Society has offices in one half. The other half can be rented.

Here's the Lighthouse all fixed up for Christmas.

This strange house can be seen on the way to the lighthouse. I have seen it on either

HGTV or Travel Channel . I can't remember which. It is made from the actual front end of a boat.

Here is the Clipper. I heard on the radio that they had twice as many trips to Victoria BC. for the week between Christmas and New Years. Victoria is so pretty during the holidays. Buchart Gardens is all decorated.
I should be ready to show my latest finished cross stitch tomorrow! Thanks for taking a look.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN BLOGLAND

The Patriotic Tree and a First Ornament

Several years ago when my son entered the military , I decided to do a small tree decorated with patriotic ornaments. The years when we go away for the holidays, this is the only tree I put up. Last summer I made some little cross stitch designs. I thought I would use them in some way for the 4th of July. There were a few I didn't use so I got the idea that I would make them into ornaments for the patriotic tree. I see all the lovely ornaments on other cross stitch blogs. I have done lots of cross stitch but haven't made ornaments. I had some great fabric so I decided to give it a try. While it doesn't compare with some ornaments I have seen, it suits the little tree just fine. I also took photos of some of the other ornaments. Have a great holiday-it's getting very close!

Christmas Colors and the Solstice

It was a beautiful day ! The sky was so blue. It was probably about 40 degrees but perfect for a walk at our favorite near the house trail. I have blogged about this trail before. Today I decided to focus on Christmas colors. I have a favorite Christmas song called"Christmas in the Northwest." There is a line, "Christmas in the Northwest is a gift God wrapped in green." This is so true!

Enjoy the beautiful blue sky!

These red twig dogwoods seem to be growing wild.

While yellow is not a Christmas color, these were so pretty in the sunlight, I couldn't resist taking a picture. (Yellow twig dogwoods)

Everywhere you look, you see these beautiful tall evergreens!

A little red and green!

Today is the winter solstice. Our sunset is at 4:22. Tomorrow sunset is at 4:23, the light is coming back!

Christmas in Seattle

Today was a great day! My dear daughter, her MIL,Sandy, and I had a girl's day in the city. We went for lunch to an area of the city known as Madison Park. I had only been there once and found the area very interesting. There were so many really interesting houses, I need to go back! We went in a totally awesome shop with a great garden center( City Peoples). We had a delicious lunch at a place called Cafe Flora. The food was wonderful. Laurie and I had been there in 1997 when I visited her. It was lots of fun to go back. I was the driver so I didn't get too many shots of that area. We then drove to downtown Seattle and between Laurie and I we got some city holiday photos -thank goodness for red lights!

Some avid knitters decided the trees needed to be kept warm. Very colorful! This was in an area called Pioneer Square.

Cafe Flora

Love those old floors!

Can you tell Christmas is only 5 days away???!!!

The tree is in Westlake Center, a large downtown shopping mall.

The famous(at least in Seattle) Macy's star.

This music sounded very good!

Every year they decorate this Westlake carousel for Christmas.

Even the duck place is decorated.

This was a very colorful shop in Pioneer Square.

Here's my new cross stitch start. I got the pattern from "Just Cross Stitch" magazine, Jan/Feb. 2010. The fabric is Belfast Linen 32 ct. I'm using DMC 3777. It's a nice brick red. I'm going to make this into a small 10 inch pillow to throw on our bed. I have lots of this color in the bedroom.
Hope you enjoyed seeing Seattle at Christmas and thanks for joining me.

A Finish

I finished "Companion Quaker Christmas Tree Sampler Part Two" by the Goode Huswife. I had a frame all ready to use. It is one I picked up several years ago at an antique show. I don't think it is that old but it was fairly cheap and the wood is beautiful! I use it for other designs so it was easy to pop out the picture in the frame and put the new one in. I decided it just had to go over the desk because I have mostly green on the desk. That means I will have to find a new home for," A Weary World Rejoices." I hope you are all having a happy time getting ready for Christmas-only one week away. I finally got a few gifts for the SBA. We bought a laptop and that was to be our gifts, but he always cheats and gets me a gift! He had a super day as the Seahawks defeated the Chicago Bears!

I think the cross stitch looks great with the old books.

This photo was taken before we framed it. Sorry for the shadow! It is done on Belfast linen 32 ct. antique ivory. The colors are DMC 3362 and 3364. I don't know the brown color. I had some NPI silk and I liked the soft brown color with the green. I must have had the brown before I carefully marked my floss.

This old copy of Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" is dated Dec. 1886. It belonged to a Daniel Lyon Powell. According to the title page, there are 28 illustrations by T. Mahoney.

The frame is solid tiger maple.

Here is the way it looks. I'm happy with the frame and the cross stitch!
I hope everyone has a great week and thanks for stopping by.