We Now Have People

Well, as you can see, we now have a couple of people in Betsy. They are all over 1 along with the funny looking dog (I think it is a dog), tree. The deer is in free hand embroidery. As you can also see I fixed the mistake in the saying. I was lucky that I only had to undo one letter and that it was on the end of the line. I am actually looking forward to doing the black part around the Queen stitch border.

I think I will also have to do the other pole on the other side of the sampler so that the path that everybody is standing on can be finished. Not sure about the ladies faces though. They look a bit weird. From what I can gather from the chart and the photo on the front of the chart, their faces are filled in with free hand embroidery. The eyes are French knots and the mouths are just red slashes.

I would like to thank Karen for alerting me to the fact that there is a photo of the original Betsy Davis in a book called - Samplers A to Z, Museum of Fine Art Boston by Pamela Parnal. I have been trying to find a bigger photo of this sampler on the Internet and unfortunately the only ones that I can find are so tiny that you can't see them properly.

I was wondering if any body out there has a copy of this book and would be able to scan this photo and send it to me via email I would be really grateful. If you can see the original or even larger photo's of samplers, it just helps placing things properly. My email address is - sandra.moffitt@gmail.com.

My youngest son has been home all week with a Lower Respiratory Tract Infection and is on antibiotics. Talk about cough. I ended up buying another Vapouriser to help him breath without the coughing.

My middle son had a week off work so he came home for a few days to see us. I think he likes living in Sydney as he kept saying that it is so cold up here and that he now prefers Sydney. Well, I suppose it is warmer down there, he lives not far from one of the surf beaches and he is not far away from the things he likes doing. One good thing for him was that he was able to catch up with a lot of his friends.

I would just like to wish my friends in the U.S. a Happy Independence Day and weekend. I hope you all have a lovely long weekend and that you get a lot of stitching done. I also hope that the weather is fine for you.

We have been getting a lot of strong winds over the last few days. Earlier in the week the weather was quite mild, but on Wednesday evening the winds hit. I thought we were going to loose the roof on Wednesday night. I could picture me lying in bed shivering gazing at the stars. That is one good thing about living in the Mountains in the stars. They are spectacular. We get to see a lot more than you can see in Sydney with the city lights.

A Sad Day

What an amazing day this is. I have been having a lot of trouble posting this, plus with my emails. I have heard that this is because of all the internet traffic since Michael Jackson passed away.

I would just like to say what an amazing musical talent, in fact quite a genius Michael Jackson was. My favourite song of his besides the songs of Thriller is a song that I have that was on a special CD that I bought when Princess Diana died. There was a beautiful song on there by Michael Jackson and it was called "Gone To Soon".

Well, below is my progress on Betsy. She is slowly getting there. I've worked the angels and I have done all the needle weaving of the blue behind the angels.

I am now in the verse. I have discovered a mistake from the chart to the photo. In the last word of the 3rd line is the word unexperienced. The C is missing from the word. It is the photo though. I don't know whether to follow the chart or follow the word.

I am still battling the boxes. I think I will be doing that for the next few weeks.

I know this is a short post but I have a lot going on at the moment. I hope you all have a lovely week.

Elizabeth is Framed

Well, as you can see I now have Elizabeth back and yesterday I framed her. I had to use just a plain frame as I couldn't find a style that I had used before when I framed Margaret Gibson.

Unfortunately after, I had finished framing it I discovered that the bottom wasn't quite straight. I had a lot to do yesterday, so I have decided that when I finish this job that I am doing at the moment I will undo Elizabeth and re do it. Besides this little problem I think she looks ok.

Betsy is coming along nicely. I finished the left side. I only have to do the black background in this bit, but that is left till last. I started working up the top and I thought I'd have a change from Queen stitch and free hand embroidery and do the arches with the angels etc.

It is funny doing freehand embroidery. You end up with funny looking birds etc. It is not as hard as I thought it would be. But if you can do all of the stitches, it is quite easy.

It is funny working on 25ct linen. I am so used to working either on 32ct over one or 40ct, but the Queen stitch and the over ones are a lot easier to do on the 25ct. I know parts of this sampler are hard to see at the moment, but when it is finished a lot of it will be surrounded by black.

A couple of my friends have asked what I am doing at the moment as I keep whinging about it. I have to cover 60 of these tissue boxes in 3 different types of wall paper. That is 20 boxes x 3 different wall papers equals 60. Plus the same in small boxes with lids.

Why I keep whinging is that I keep having trouble with the wall paper. This particular one is actually linen toile on wall paper. Because it is wet and misty up here I am having trouble getting it to stick properly. Also I don't particularly like having my fingers covered in glue all the time. It quite annoys me. Well I have done 10 of these so far so I just have 50 to go. 20 of the ones I have to do have to be done in decoupage. It usually takes me over an hour to cut out the motifs. As you can gather these wall paper types are very expensive. I am doing this work for a hotel that I used to work in many years ago. Every couple of years they get me to do some more to replace ones that are either stolen or need to be replaced. They are used in the bathroom when the hold tissues and cotton balls for the guests.

Anyway the boxes await me so I had better go and do some. Whinge, grumble, whinge lol.

Elizabeth is Finished

I have been having a "Happy Dance" time as Elizabeth is finished. I finished her over the long weekend. I haven't been able to frame her as yet, as my DH wanted to show it to a lady who he works with. Unfortunately she hasn't been to work this week, so I have to wait till next week to do it. All I hope is that he doesn't decide to sell it on me lol. No he won't do that.

I am now working on The Scarlet Letter's Betsy Davis. I seem to have a "thing" for Rhode Island Samplers especially the ones from The Mary Balach School. I think what makes them special for me is the way the background is worked.

The way of working this sampler is a bit different for me. I usually work from the middle out, but this one I had to work from the top left hand corner. I am about to finish the Queen stitch flowers on the left hand side of the column. The stems and leaves are all worked in freehand embroidery e.g. stem stitch and satin stitch. I think when I have finished the bud below the last flower I will work the arch that connects the columns so that I can do the Queen stitch flowers above the arch.

As you can see I also have Betsy Manchester. Depending on how I go with the other Betsy, she might be my next work. I think they would look spectacular hanging together.

I have been very cold over the last few days. We have had temperatures of minus 2 degrees C. On Wednesday, snow was forecasted, but unfortunately it only snowed higher up. Can you see the difference here. Snow here is a bit of a treat as we don't get much of it. I think though if I lived in the US or Canada the thought of snow would be a great pain in the you know where. But still I'm finding it very cold this year. My feet are like ice. Must be getting old lol. I used to have a Great Aunt and Uncle who lived 2 villages up. They had the right idea. As soon winter hit they moved up to the Gold Coast in Queensland for 3 months. Sounds like the perfect idea to me, but I don't think it will happen.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and thank you for paying me a visit. I love hearing from you all.

The End is Very Near

Well, as you can see the end is nearly there for Elizabeth. Hopefully I will have her completely finished by the weekend. It is not until you really get up close to her to see how absolutely beautiful she is.

I noticed on the Scarlett Letter website the other day, that you can by the model of this sampler for $2,000 framed. I can understand why as there is so much work in it. I told my DH. He didn't seem to be impressed by this news (he's not a sampler lover) and told me "Good, don't give it away to anyone, we'll sell it". I think he has 2 chances of that happening lol.


I am looking forward to starting something new, but I can't make up my mind as usual. I don't know whether to sit down and finish my Beatrix Potter. I am over half way with her. Or to start something that I'm itching to do and that is Betsy Davis. Ah decisions, decisions. I will have to see what mood I am in when I finish Elizabeth.

School Girl Aprons

As you can see Elizabeth is drawing to the end. I am now in the saying. All I have to do is finish this and do the top border. Put my Grandmothers name on the bottom of the sampler and she is finished.

Last week I paid a visit to my Dad and he gave me a bag with a few things that my Mum had kept. In it there were a couple of things that I completely forgot about and I thought that I would show you.

I went to school in Sydney during the late 1950's and 60's. While I was in Primary School we had to make a few things. The idea was to teach us to sew and to make some practical things.

The first thing I remember making was on a piece of Huckaback and it had all this needle weaving on it. I have it, but I can't find it at the moment. I had forgotten that we had to make ourselves these aprons. We had to make them completely from scratch and then to decorate them. We learnt how to hem and also a few embroidery stitches.One of these is mine and the other is my Sisters. Unfortunately I can't remember who made which.

I also made a napkin. Could this be my first cross stitch. I also remember that we had to make ourselves a pair of shorty PJ's. We learnt how to do all different seams e.g. French Seams. Unfortunately I don't have these lol. These were made when I was around 9 to 11.

I also have a small tea cloth that I made when I was in High School. I think I was about 14 or 15 at the time. This is where I learnt how to do counted cross stitch. I will go searching for it and show you one day.

Thankfully the rain has gone for a little while. It is lovely to see the sun.

More Lollipops

I'm sorry if these photos are a bit dark. It is not a very nice day to day. It is quite chilly and very wet. My dog Sally has decided to spend the day laying in front of the fire. Lucky her. It is a good day to sit near it with my stitching in hand, but unfortunately I have other things to do.

As you can see the border is progressing. I have only to do one more lollipop on the side border and then to fill it and the other 2 in. Next comes the saying:-

"Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand
As the first efforts of an infants hand,
And while her fingers o'er the canvas move
Engage her tender heart to seek thy Love;
With thy dear children let her share apart
And write thy name thy self upon her heart."

This is all over one on 40ct.

Besides this saying is there are 2 different types of urns with quite large plants that are the whole length of the saying and then of course there is the continuation of of the border.

Hopefully, this will only take me another couple of weeks and then it will be "happy dance" time.

I would just like to say thank you for all your lovely comments regarding this sampler. It looks quite challenging but once you start doing it, it is just a piece of cake.

I hope the weather is kind to you, wherever you are. The weather on the East Coast of Australia is terrible at the moment. All that is good about it is that the dams are filling up quite rapidly.