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!!!

Merry Christmas form the Beautiful Doors of Huntsville

I hope this finds all of you having a wonderful holiday and a very Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate this day! We are in Huntsville with our family.  If you have followed this blog you know how much I love older homes.  Huntsville is full of beautiful old homes! Yesterday was just beautiful , warm and sunny so the SBA and I went for a walk and took pictures of the doors and homes.  I hope you will enjoy!

I want this house! It was built in 1823.  Do you think I can move it to Seattle????!!!!

And this is even much more valuable than any house could ever be!!!!!! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cross Stitch

Thanks so much to those of you who looked at my last post on my Christmas decorating. The SBA(super blog assistant-he loads the photos) and I bought a camera for our Christmas gift to each other.  Blogging has made me so much more interested in taking pictures.  Do any of you feel the same?  Anyway, I was practicing with the new camera and decided to show you all the Christmas cross stitch that I have up in the house.  I'm not gong to identify each one.  If you have questions, let me know and I will try to find any information you might need about a particular design.

 This ornament is very special.  Last summer I gave Chris ,over at the blog Tot Hill Farm Stitches, a chart.  I received this adorable ornament in the mail a few days ago as a thanks.  Chris, I love it!!! It is happily hanging on my tree. The rest of the photos will be just a cross stitch tour.

Lastly, this is what we woke up to this morning.  Our first snow.   We will be leaving to head South soon. I will blog when I can but want to take this opportunity to wish, those of you who celebrate Christmas, a very Merry one.  And may the rest of you have a wonderful winter holiday break.