Big Excitment!!

First, thanks to all of you who take time to read this blog and an extra thanks to those who comment.  I have very exciting news today.  When my sister sent the coverlet, she included an old sampler.  The coverlet may have to go back to her but she said the old sampler is ours to keep.  She got it several years ago at an auction and has done nothing with it.  The first thing I did was to get it off the cardboard backing-so bad for the sampler.  We kind of put it aside as it came the day before our trip.  Since we got home, the SBA and I have gotten into this sampler.  He loves genealogy so the first thing we did was to get the name of the little girl who stitched it. Her name is Elizabeth Mary Garbutt.  He did a family search and found her family in Ingleby Greenhow Yorkshire, England. The sampler was stitched in 1887. There are several sets of initials on the sampler so we were able to identify family members. The sampler is in rough shape but  we will do all we can to preserve it. Even more exciting, the SBA wants to chart it for me so I can stitch a reproduction. He is a former engineer and does very well with detailed work.  Plus he loves to keep busy and this time of year, things are a bit slow here in the Pacific NW.  So he has taken on this challenge with vigor.  I am one lucky wife!!!!!

 It is very faded on the front side.

 The bands are fairly elaborate.(top)

 Bottom part

 Notice how much brighter the back appears.

 We find that if you hold it up to the light things become much more clear. I love her verse,"By this you see what care my parents took of me." She was 11 years old when she stitched this sampler. Above the verse, you can see the row of family initials. Plus her parents initials JG and EAG appear in the second row of stitching. Her parents are Joseph Garbutt and Elizabeth Ann Garbutt .
This is so exciting to me.  Plus as I said , the SBA loves the graphing and genealogy! It is a project we will both enjoy. Plus we feel like we are helping to preserve a small piece of this young girl's life.

Cross Stitch Planning

Thanks to all of you who wished me well in my last post.  The good news is that I am feeling better each day.  Sinus things are just a pain.  I have planned a stitching start for the year.  I'll explain them as I show the pictures.

 Here is France F.  I have changed the colors quite a bit.  It had just too many pinkish tones and lavender for me.  I am using my old favorites DMC 355 and 356.  I wish I had a LNS so I could explore more threads.  Maybe the SBA and I should make a road trip to Portland! I could visit Acorns and Threads. I have no trouble with charts and even linen, as I have my favorites.  It is just so hard to get accurate color on the computer for all the various threads.

 This will be a quick stitch and give me a chance to try some 36ct. linen that I have purchased.  I'm going to move some of the motifs closer so I can put it in a 5x7 frame. ( The frame Sunflower Santa  was in).

 First, sorry for the line in the photo.  I am so excited to stitch this one and I have Mary  at "Stitches and More" to thank.  She had stitched this one and I saw it on her blog.  Last Jan. 1, I made the resolution to live this Psalm, "This is the Day the Lord Has Made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. I really wanted to appreciate the true value of ordinary days.  I think this verse says it all.  I mentioned this to Mary and she immediately offered her pattern to me when she finished the sampler.  It comes form Just Cross Stitch Magazine,Feb.2009 so I have no idea if I could have found it.  Thanks to Mary, this will be project 3.

Meg's Bunny will be my project for spring, more stitching on 36 count. I found this on Ebay last year.

Thanks so much for joining me and have a terrific week!

Back Home!

The SBA and I finally made it back home last Fri.  I have been cursed with the crud so haven't even felt like blogging!!(Now that is pretty bad) I f I have missed some of your great posts please forgive me. I think it was the trip home that did me in.  We left Huntsville at 11 am and finally got home at about 1:30 am.  We got into Seattle at 9:30 and a comedy of errors including the fact that they could not connect the jet-way for about a half an hour made it impossible for us to catch the 11 pm ferry.  The next ferry was 12:15 am,I have never been on such a late ferry!!  I was surprised to see how many cars were on the ferry at that time of night!! Well, after days of rest, I'm almost back to normal.  This is just a short post showing a few good things.  I hope in my next post to get into plans for the stitching year.

I was lucky to win a give away from Cath at "The Stitchin Chicken" . The prize was the great magnetic book marks but she included this wonderful fall pillow and great Halloween fabric.  I love them both .  Fall is my favorite season.

As you can see, the SBA has already appropriated one of the book marks.

My DD , the designer of Woolpets, presented us with this adorable tree person!!  I absolutely love her!!!

Just before Christmas, my sister sent this wonderful coverlet to us.  We are baby sitting it for her until she finds the right place for it.  Her home in South Florida is just not the place for coverlets .  She may get a condo in Ohio and I'll have to give it back!

The eagles are amazing!

Notice the date, 1834 and the location, Scopio , NY

Here is my current project.  I saw the header at Marly's blog, "Samplers and Santas." I fell in love with France F., an out of print Sheepish Designs chart.  I haunted ebay till I found it.

The border is finally done.  I had to do some frogging to get it right!!UG!

As usual, I'm changing a few of the colors!

I hope all of you had a great Christmas and New Year's Eve.  I wish you all good health and happiness in 2013!!!