Happy Flag Day!

Good morning and thanks so much to all of you who take time to read this blog!! After looking at several blogs this morning, I decided to do a Flag Day post.  Over at The Sampler Girl's Blog, she has a wonderful history of Flag Day.  I just walked around the house to see where I saw the flag.  Now it helps that yesterday I did my 4th of July decorating!! Our house colors are predominately navy blue or cobalt blue, barn red, and gold, so patriotic colors fit right in! I hope you enjoy my little flag parade! 

 

This flag is special.  We bought it at an antique show.  It has 48 stars.  Our house in Louisville was built at a time when the flag had 48 stars.  We displayed it in our family room.  When we moved out here one of the movers handled it with such respect and care.  I will not ever forget that.

This was a Christmas gift from the SBA.  That man really knows me!

Another antique show find.

Have a Happy Flag Day!!!

Samplers and Flowers

Well, I'm typing with my right hand and the big old bandage is gone!! Yea! The stitches won't come out for another week but I'm doing more everyday. I tried a bit of stitching yesterday but it wasn't too easy so I think I'll wait for a few days, then try again.  I decided to show my favorite non-Quaker sampler.  It is called Mary Livcey 1832.  It is by Of Female Worth( good title for a designer!!) Anyway, it was the second sampler chart I bought in Victoria,BC. A stitched one was in the window at Christmas time and I  loved the reds and greens.  The description says Mary was only 13 when she stitched this sampler. The chart says," The colors and design are very Scottish in appearance however the turkey in the lower left corner assures us that this is an American work."  I found that very interesting. I have added a few pictures from my garden.  The peonies are finally blooming.  It is still cool and cloudy with an occasional sunny day.  I'm not complaining-I moved here partly for the cool weather!

 Mary is large, 15x15 3/4 on 32ct.  I think I did it on 28 ct.  That was before I found magnifiers!!!!

 The verse is all over 1-not my favorite!

 I worked all the connecting green line first.  I wanted to be sure that border met before I added all the flowers!!

There's the turkey they were talking about.

 This is a very beautiful bush/tree.  It is call Sambucus nigra "Eva" better known as black lace elderberry.  This one is about 12 feet high and in June it is covered with beautiful clumps of flowers.

Next are 3 different peonies. I don't know the name of this one.  It was a clump given to me.

 Peony, "Morning Lilac"

Peony "Primevere"

Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate it very much!!! Hope you are having a very good week!

The Quakers

I hope this has been a good week-end for all of you.  I'm happy because this big annoying bandage comes off tomorrow.  It will be one more week of the SBA doing the dishes because I can't submerge the hand in water for another week.  But at least this bandage will be gone. I might even try cross stitch to see if it hurts.  The plan is do it (that is anything) unless it hurts! Today I thought it might be fun to show the big Quakers that I have done.  I love to stitch Quaker designs and have several done for the holidays as well as the ones I'll show here.  I'm not sure of thread or linen color but if anyone really wants to know ,e-mail me and I'll try to figure it out.

 This is how my love affair with Quaker designs started, the original Beatrix Potter's Quaker Sampler by Needleprint.  I saw  this on line and just had to have it.  I do know it is stitched with Needlepoint Silk,Inc.

 This one is called Sampler 4 Seasons by Monasterium Design.  Again I used Needlepoint Silks for thread.

 As usual, the colors are much prettier than this shows.

 

 This is a wonderful Ellen Chester "With MY Needle" design called "An Emblem of Love". I put in family initials.  I did this for our 32nd anniversary.The blues are all from the Atlantic Blue Range of needlepoint silks.(Color in photo is off)

 

 This is a Handwork Sampler called"The 1830 Judith Townsend".  The original is in the DAR museum in Washington DC.  I am a member of DAR so I wanted to stitch one from that museum.

This has nothing to do with Quaker Samplers, but I love spiders and we have a great batch of babies on our deck!

Thanks for taking a look and have a great Sunday!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

FYI ,I'm actually typing this! Thanks so much for all your well wishes,they mean a lot! I never knew how useful teeth could be getting things done.  Since I'm not able to show any cross stitch updates, I decided to share the first sampler I did after moving to Washington.  First, I need to say that while living in Louisville, I was spoiled with a very good LNS.  Out here, I have to travel almost all day to get to a shop.  That includes a thirty dollar ferry ride. The first summer we were here, we took a day trip to Victoria,BC.  I found a cute little shop called Buttons&Needlework Boutique.  I bought the biggest sampler I could find not knowing when I would get back.  I'm showing you that sampler today. I have now discovered the wonderful world of on-line cross stitch supplies! Life is good! I love Victoria so I'm including pictures of this lovely town. These pictures were taken when a dear friend and her husband were here at Christmas.  We went up to have Christmas tea at famous Empress Hotel.

Rhoda Hastings 1863 by Samplers and Such.  I used the recommended linen and threads.

This is at the bottom.  She included many family names.

This is the top portion.  Stitching this took several months!

 To get to Victoria, we have to drive to Port Angeles ,WA, then take a ferry across the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

Victoria is the capital of B.C. so there are many government buildings.

 This was taken inside the Empress Hotel.

 Getting ready for the tea.

We are on the ferry going home. You see many of these little sea planes.

Thank you so much for taking a look at my blog.  I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!!

Problems

I had a great post ready for today and blogger won't let me put my photos on the post.  It says that I have reached my limit. I have no idea what to do Any ideas??

Milwaukee plus

Thanks for all those wonderful comments from yesterday. Plus - Thanks to all of you who take time to read my blog. Day two without use of my right hand has proven to be less problems than expected. That is mostly thanks to the S.B.A. who continues to be my typist and all around assistant. Have I mentioned the poor man has to do all the dishes until June 18th? !! Who knows, I may be able to do cross stitch before I can submerge my hand in water ! Today I'm going to share a few pictures we took while in Milwaukee. Also , we picked up the framed version of "Penny America".

 I love the old and new together.

 The details on old architecture is amazing.

 Whenever we travel, we try to find an Antique shop. We had a few hours in Milwaukee and found this cute Patriotic Song book. In 1903, it cost 6 cents ! I will use this as part of my 4th of July decorating. This cute little book will join the following booklets that I put on our desk.

 Penny America turned out very pretty. The frame is actually a dark blue. Hope you are all having a good week. I sure miss my stitching!

Back Home!

We arrived home last evening from the Memorial Service for the S.B.A.'s brother. I would like to thank each of you for your wonderful comments of condolence. I wish I could respond to each comment personally.  I was able to get home in time for the Carpal Tunnel surgery today. At this point , I am unable to type, so the S.B.A. is typing this for me. I have to brag a bit about the him. He gave a wonderful eulogy for his brother at the service. I was extremely proud of him.

I worked like crazy on the John Foster during the trip, especially on the plane. All that I have left to do is the Bee skeep, the flowers on the right side and the border. It will have to wait until the hand heals. Thank you again for taking the time to read this blog. I appreciate it so much.

A Robin and John Foster

Thank you all so much for looking at my Memorial Day Post. I e-mailed my Daughter-in-law and told her to read all the wonderful comments you  made.  She e-mailed me back and asked that I express her thanks to all of you for the kind things you said. 
Last Fri. my Daughter and I took a Mother-Daughter trip to the city to celebrate our birthdays that are only 1 week apart.  We had a great time.  Her gift to me was one of her wonderful wool sculptures.  She has an amazing collection of  children's books so we found a great  children's  book store and she picked out her gifts from the SBA and me.
Our family did get some bad news the end of last week.  My brother-in-law(the SBA'S brother) passed away.  That means we are making a quick trip to Wisconsin.  I'll make it home for my hand surgery but things are a bit chaotic right now.  Good old John Foster will be going with.  I do like to stitch on the plane so I may get more of him finished before my hand surgery than I expected .  If you don't hear form me for a few days, you now know why!  I hope you all have a good week!! Thanks again for taking a look at my ramblings!

My birthday gift!! You can see more of her work at "Woolpets".  They have both a blog and a web site.

I working my way up on John.  There are two big flower vases at the top, plus a bee hive and some bees.

I stopped that middle  part when I realized we'd be making a trip.  I think it will be easy to do on a plane.  I prefer filling or some other type of repetitive design on a plane.

Thanks again for taking a look!