Monday, January 5, 2009

Current Stitching Update

Well as you can see I have finished Lois and she now has my Mum's name on her. I just have to find a square frame for her and then she will be finished. I think she is absolutely beautiful and I am sure that my Mum would have been proud to have her name placed on her.

I have now started working on Elizabeth Cox from the Scarlet Letter. Elizabeth is one of those samplers that challenge a person's needlework abilities. Not only is there cross stitch, but long and short stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, back stitch and I believe there are French nots in there somewhere. In other words, she is quite a challenge.

As you can see, this is my progress so far. Every thing at the moment has to be outlined in stem stitch and then filled in with either long and short, satin and stem stitch. The flower is done in long and short.

In keeping with my naming samplers after family members on the female line I have decided to dedicate this sampler to my grandmother who I unfortunately never knew. She passed away on my Mum's birthday a couple of months before I was born. Elizabeth was one of her middle names and Cox was her maiden name. She was also born in England, so this sampler is perfect for her. My Mum had these amazing tablecloths that she had made when she was younger. They were all done in the most beautiful long and short stitch. Mum used to use them on important family celebrations.

Yesterday, I thought I had better get my Beatrix Potter out and do a couple of motifs for the SAL that I have joined. As you can see I worked on the top 2 motifs of the border. Because I am so far along, I thought that if I only do 1 or 2 motifs a month I should be on target with the other girls.

While looking for a frame yesterday, I came upon a huge square one that my Sarah Moon would it in. That was one of my concerns with doing it over 2. Anyway, I have decided to also work on Sarah Moon during the evenings. Because Elizabeth has so many speciality stitches, I think I am better working on her during the day. My next problem with Sarah is where to hang her.


My dear friend Karen gave me this amazing gift for Christmas. She knows that I love Scarlet Letter samplers and she bought me the beautiful Grazing Sheep sampler. She also bought me the beautiful needle minder. She knows that I love angels.
Well I had better get off and go and investigate something that my son has told me was in the back yard. He was doing some weeding for his Father and a baby tiger snake about 30 cms slithered past him. He is now in panic mode. I wonder why. They are quite venomous. Usually where there is one there are a few others. Oh help.

8 comments:

Kathy A. said...

Your samplers are all so beautiful. I like how you name them all.

Ranae said...

Everything looks fantastic.
I admire those Scarlet Letter Samplers everytime I visit a not so close lns.
I love those needle minders.

staci said...

They're all just gorgeous!

Cindy F. said...

Lois is amazing! Congrats on your beautiful finish! So nice that you put your mom's name on it!
Love your current wips too! Great progress on all!

Lapplisor said...

Dear Sandra
First of all I wish a good year for r you and your family.

I am excited about your work.
Your "Luis" has become so wonderful.
Your Mum would now very happy with it.
Your other samplers are also very beautiful, and the particular, is a real challenge, which I also love.
The two Quaker samplers are also wonderful.
Sandra, I do not know how you so many great works at the same time can make.
Nevertheless, I wish you much pleasure in your samplers.
- And - watch out for snakes!
Best Regards from the snowy Germany.
♥☼♥Barbara♥☼♥

Teri said...

You have been very busy! The Lois finish is fantastic; the colors are so beautiful. But I have to tell you, I'm already loving the work you've completed on Elizabeth Cox - such a perfect sampler to dedicate to your grandmother. Have fun with all the beautiful projects!

Crazee4books said...

Hi Sandra,

Hope you survived the snake
hunt and that the Tiger Snake
who surprised your son was a
loner.

We're lucky here in that we only have one poisonous snake native
to the area, which is the massassauga rattler. It is quite poisonous, but there aren't many
of them around now and they
aren't in populated areas.

Congratulations on finishing
Lois. She is magnificent and
a wonderful addition to your
stitching treasures. I can't
wait to see her framed.

And good luck with Elizabeth
Cox. It looks like it'll be a
lot of work/fun with all those
specialty stitches. The flower
that you've done so far is
very pretty.

Oh, it's nice to see Beatrix
Potter out again and getting
some attention. Are you
stitching it over one?? I
really, really love the colour
of the thread that you're
stitching it in.

And then there's Sarah Moon,
with all it's colourful detail.
Stitching these Quaker style
projects is so much fun because
you're always doing something
new, even when the project is
only half way done.

The problem with stitching
square projects is that you
can't easily find a ready
made frame to put them in.
Most frames are made for
photographs these days, which
won't work with square x-
stitch projects.

I read The Three Musketeers
in high school and was
amazed that I liked it as
much as I did. I have a
nice copy of it from the
Folio Society but haven't
gotten around to rereading
it yet. Maybe this year I
should make the effort.

I looked up the Goodhart
Sampler book on google
because I'd never heard of
it before and was able to
see some of the pages and
details of some of the
featured samplers. What
a beautiful book it is.
No wonder you were thrilled
to receive it for Xmas from
your DH.

Could you manage to coax a
bit of your hot summer air
along to us??? We had snow
yesterday and we're due for
another storm tomorrow night.
At least it's Friday night
so we don't have to worry
about traveling in it the
next day. Out west, in the
Canadian Prairies, they've
had temps as much as -50
Celsius. Can you imagine??
Makes our -10 feel positively
balmy in comparison.

We're taking the Christmas
tree and all the other
seasonal ornaments down this
weekend and packing them
away for another year. It'll
make the house look so bare
and dull when they're gone.

Good luck with your "many"
stitching projects.

Cheers!

Ele said...

Hello Sandra,

it's always such a great pleasure for me to visit and see these wonderful cross stitch projects!
All samplers are great and gorgeous!

Whish you a happy new year and stitching time!

Gabriele