A Yard Walk and a Finish!

I  am so happy that many of you enjoyed the pictures of Hurricane Ridge.  If you ever get to Washington, that is a place you will want to visit!! We had a spring- like day.  It was sunny and the temps were in the high 40's or low 50"s.  We took our morning walk and then took some pictures in the yard. 
Last night I finished my second finish for the year, "Meg's Bunny."  It will be nice to have it finished for Easter and the Spring. I hope you enjoy the walk around the yard!

This is the same bush that you see in the header only without the snow.  It is a species of Dogwood called"Mid-Winter Fire".

This crab apple has kept these tiny golden crab apples all winter.

You have to like moss to survive in the Pacific NW.

I think it looks like green velvet.  Can you see the tiny drops of rain left from last night?

Raindrops on roses! 

The birds have left berries on the pyracantha.

Our Witch hazel is blooming. The entire tree is covered with these pretty yellow flowers.

More Moss except I think this might be lichen.

Just wanted to show you how green it is up here, even in January.

Here is Meg's Bunny.  It is not one of my favorites.  I am not a pastel person.  However, I decided it would be ok for the Spring season. I changed the last two lines and put our initials on one line and the initials of our Grandchildren on the last line. I was experimenting with the Lakeside Linen Pecan Butter 36 ct.  I like the linen and the count, but maybe not a good color choice for this project.  The color of the linen and the threads combined to make the project appear rather drab.  I wanted a small project to see how I liked 36 count so it did serve its purpose.

My hope is that you all have a wonderful relaxing week-end!!

The Mountains

First, I want to thank all of you who read my blog.  I appreciated all the comments so much!  As I mentioned in my last blog, we have had very odd weather.  It is cold and foggy at sea level and warm and sunny in the mountains. The SBA and I decided to take a trip up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park  to see if the weather reporters were correct.  They were!! I have often said that this is the place where I fell in love with Washington.  I don't think I have ever seen it as beautiful as it was on Sunday!! Enjoy the pictures!

 This is the way it looked at our house.

 Ok, it is getting better.

This was on the way up to the top.

 The SBA agreed to model so I could show you how deep the snow is. The really strange thing was how warm it was.  I just wore a fleece shirt and no coat and I was totally comfortable.

From the top!

 Here is the lodge where we had coffee. They rented ski things.

 When I saw this, I said," I think we have walked far enough!!!"

 This is Mt. Baker.  It is across Puget sound from the Olympics, it is in the Cascades.  From high up you could see for miles.

Oh , oh, time to head home and back to this!

The end of a beautiful day!!!!! Have a wonderful week!

First Finish of 2013!

I finally got rid of the Dec. header.  And no , our yard does not look like the header! Too bad!  That was a few years ago.  We have had the weirdest weather.  Some sort of inversion layer is over all of Puget Sound.  The days are cold and foggy.  So, tomorrow the SBA and I are heading up to the mountains.  It is suppose to be sunny and warmer up there-go figure!  We are going to drive up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park.  If you like snow and mountains, I hope I'll have some great photos to share.
The other night, I finished France F.  I love the way it looks even if I did change many of the colors on the chart.  I appreciated all your positive comments about my changes! We are still on the look out for a good 25 count for the antique reproduction so I stuck in "Meg's Bunny."  It is turning out to be a quick stitch and I am using 36count  Pecan Butter by Lakeside Linen.  I am really liking that linen and the 36 count.  I owe a thanks to Ellen Chester from the blog"With My Needle"who recommended that linen to me. I am already planning my next stitch, "This is the Day the Lord has Made" All the while, I will be on the lookout for 25ct. linen.
I also have  some wonderful news to share with you.  My son and DIL are expecting a baby girl in June!!!!!! This is Caleb's Mommy and Dad.  He will be a wonderful big brother! The SBA and I are very excited and happy for them!

France F by Sheepish Designs. 

 The house was suppose to be light red but I had so much red, I decided to use gold.

Sorry for the wrinkles! This is the start of Meg's Bunny".  It will be fun to have this out in the spring.

I hope all of you are enjoying a good week-end with lots of stitching!

Cross Stitch Plus

Thanks so much to those of you commenting on our project.  Just a quick update, we are taking our time with the colors.  We have matched all but two.  There is a very very light blue and a light putty color. They are giving us trouble. We are going to a few local places that have floss this weekend.  There is a shop in Issaquah,Eastern part of King County(Seattle is in King County),that does carry threads. We might have to make a trip over there.  Also, to come close to the linen, we need 25 ct.  I usually do a higher count.  The Lakeside Linens has a good match in Pecan Butter but they don't come in 25 ct., any suggestions?? If I can't find a good match, I can do the Pecan Butter in 28 ct.  It would be a bit smaller than the original.

 Look what I found in the garden this week!  A very pretty surprise.  All of my other hellebores  bloom later.

This is one reson the NW stays pretty in the winter.  Green everywhere!

 While the SBA has been busy with the antique sampler, I have been stitching France F.  Now if France were here, she would say," That is NOT my sampler."  When I chose the colors, I eliminated some of hers.  I  was in the midst of that sinus thing and just did what came easy.  She used colors I usually don't use and I was not in a risk taking mood.  I like the way it looks but do feel a bit guilty.

Here was my first attempt at stitching on 40 count.  It did stress my eyes a bit.  However, it was very bright stiff linen. The linen looks to be a  softer color in the picture . It was a bright white. Plus, I did not like the stiffness.  So I will try 40 ct. again. 

I hope you all have a great week-end!  On Sunday we will be watching football.  GO SEAHAWKS!

The Excitement continues!

Thanks to all of you who have read my blog and shared my excitement about the old sampler.  If you read the comments on the last post, you will see that I received a comment from Irene( Starry-eyed Stitcher).  She is very familiar with the area this sampler comes from.  We have shared some very interesting e-mails.  The world is truly a small place!! That plus , bloggers are the nicest people.
The wonderful SBA has been very busy charting the sampler.  I think he has seen it as quite a challenge. He has finished the chart and now we have to deal with the colors.  We are using the back as that is where you can see her choices.  We may do the front as a very pale option. There are only 5 colors so we are trying to decide how to chart them without doing the entire sampler over again with symbols.  He did use symbols on the motifs so that will make it easier. Each letter is only one color so we might just put a number by each letter. Any suggestions on how to show color without re-graphing the whole thing?.

 The entire sampler.

 Elizabeth did very detailed bands.  In stitching the sampler, I think the bands will be the most time consuming.

More detailed bands

This is the bottom.  We left her mistakes in the chart.
I hope to stitch the reproduction and then hang them side by side.
I wish you all a great week ahead!

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!!!