The Girls Are Framed

I didn't get much stitching done over the weekend as I finally sat down and framed both Betsy and Beatrix.

I tried a new method of doing it. Vonna has this really good tutorial on how to frame a sampler and I tried that. I bought some acid free board with foam in the middle a heap of pins and I was off. So much easier than the lacing method. It is not perfect, but I am quite happy with the out come that is the main thing.


I haven't hung them as yet as I have to get some stronger hooks before I put them on the wall. Especially Betsy. Don't want her crashing down on my head lol. Even worse if it happened to land on my DH's. The thought of that makes me shudder lol.

On the stitching front, here is my update on Hannah Lancaster. I really didn't get that much done but I am really enjoying stitching her along with my friend Tawny. I'm looking forward to seeing Tawny's progress, but really at the stage where we both are, there isn't much to show.

On the Grazing Sheep front is is definitely nothing to report. I haven't done anything on her since last week and she has even less than Hannah.

Well, until next time, I hope you all have a lovely long weekend to my friends in the States. If you aren't in the States I hope you all have a lovely week.

Beatrix is Now Finished

I have finally finished Beatrix. She was my problem child who I had a love/hate relationship. I love her, but I for some reason hated working on her. Maybe it was because she was stitched on 32ct linen over 1 or it was the continual use of just one thread. I don't know, but I am so glad that she is finished and that she can leave my work basket and be framed.

I started working on Scarlet Letters Grazing Sheep last night, but I haven't done very much. No enough to show anyway.

I am also doing something that I don't normally do. I am doing something with my friend who doesn't have a blog called a SHS which means - Stitching Hannah on Sundays. Both my Friend and I have wanted to stitch Hannah Lancaster for a long while, so we decided to dedicate Sundays stitching this amazing sampler and we both started last Sunday. This is my progress. It isn't much to show at the moment, but that is ok. I hope this Sunday is better weather wise than last Sunday. Last Sunday was one of those really hot sticky days. Not good for sewing.

I feel quite sad today. I live in one of the most beautiful places in Australia and also one of the most dangerous. For the past couple of days the Police Rescue and emergency people have been looking for 6 people who failed to come back after a few days canyoning in the Blue Mountains. Late yesterday afternoon, the Police Helicopter found them, but unfortunately one of 2 teenagers that were in the party had been killed from a rock fall. He was 15 years old. I have a 15 year old son as well and I feel so sad for his parents.

For the past 2 days after all the heat we have had we have misty, raining conditions. Yesterday there was a break in the weather and the helicopter was able to get the other 5 people out and take them to hospital. They have all been released this morning. But they couldn't get the body out. Police, Paramedics and Emergency Crews stayed and guarded the boy's body.

Today is another really misty day and I am listening to my DH's RFS scanner about all the problems they are having getting the body out. They have to carry it out as it is to treacherous for the helicopter. It is going to take them a long time to do this.

I find this all so very sad. I think the other teenager in the party was his brother.

She is all Finished

She is finished. Yipee. I think she is so beautiful and I am looking forward to hanging her with Betsy Davis.

I finished most of her on New Years Eve while waiting for the Sydney Fire Works and only had a little bit more to do on New Years Day.



I decided to make a New Years Resolution to try and finish Beatrix Potter before I start something else. She is coming along nicely and I only have a few more motifs to go. She has been in my workbasket for quite a while and it will be good to have her finished. So I will have 2 samplers to frame.

Well it looks as if Grazing Sheep will be my project and I am looking forward to starting her. Hopefully Bea will be finished by the weekend all going well.

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year this year.

Would You Believe It Is Nearly Finished

Take a look at her now he he he. Isn't she beautiful. Hopefully she will be finished by the end of the week. All that I have to do is finish the black background on the right hand side.

I have really been enjoying working on these two Rhode Island Samplers. You never it is quite possible that they might be joined by a few more samplers from Rhode Island, but these 2 of the jewels amongst my small collection. I have a few more graphs in my collection, but they are more the Newport RI ones. I would love to get my hands on some more of the Mary Balch School e.g. the other Betsy Davis and/or Mary's Mother, Sarah Rogers. What a collection that would be. Oh well, it doesn't look possible, so I can only dream aaahhhh.

Have you ever had 2 samplers kitted up in your work basket that are both jumping up and down telling me to "pick me" no "pick me".

I have that problem at the moment. I don't know which one to do. One minute is Hestera and the next it is Grazing Sheep. I really don't know which one will be my next piece. What do you think?

I had a lovely Christmas. We all went down to my Father's house and we had such a lovely time down there. It was lovely to spend time with my eldest sons as I don't see them that often now. Santa was also good and brought me some lovely presents which I really love.

I will probably be murder for publishing their photos but you can see that my 2 eldest sons must have had a lovely lunch. I think this was before the pudding though lol. This is what you would call Brotherly love. Quite different from when they were younger as they were always fighting. Boys.

This is my youngest son. He played Santa and gave out every bodies presents. He is still down at my Father's house. The chocolates ended up coming home with us though lol. I don't think we would be popular if we ate them though.

My goodness this year has really flown by. Sampler wise, I think I have completed 3 which is lovely. I always seem to pick big, complicated samplers that occupy my time, but I really enjoy working on them and I love it when they are finished.

I just want to wish everybody a Happy New Year. I hope that you all have a lovely time and remember that there is always another beautiful sampler awaiting around the corner. Happy New Year.

Another Betsy Update

Do you think I will have finished with Betsy by the early next year? Quite possibly. As you can see this is my progress with Betsy. I have to finish working the squiggly line all around it in 739, do a leaf, give the strawberries stems and then I have a lot of alternating half cross stitch to do.

She is looking good, if I say so myself. My progress on her might be quite speeded up though through a series of misfortunes.



During last week I had to have a lot of Xrays, bone scans, MRI's etc. etc. For quite a while I have been complaining about a pain in my leg which they thought at first was clots. After a Doppler - No Clots. Still more pain so another trip to the Doctors and it is off to have an Xray on my spine. Doctor is horrified at the condition of my spine. He doesn't know what to do, so it is off to a trip to my Spine Specialist. He sends me off to have all these tests and also books me into to see an Orthopedic Specialist re the knees. He thinks the time has finally come for me to have knee replacements. Mind you I was originally told 22 years ago that I needed knee replacements, but I was to young. So I have had 2 operations on the right knee. It is the left knee that is causing me so much bother.

So I go and have a bone scan which reveals among a few things that I have 2 stress fractures in my lower left leg around the knee area. No wonder I have been in so much agony. So it is a trip to the local hospital to see what I can do to help me with the pain. The answer is - go and see your local doctor. Ok. Still more pain and agony. I go to see my local doctor who tells me know wonder you are in so much pain. But because I am in the middle of having all these tests etc. he can't send me to the hospital to have them put plaster on it.

He gets in touch with my specialist (I have nearly finished all my tests by this time. One to go) who gets me to come to see him earlier and tells me. Yes I definitely need 2 knee replacements and can see no point in putting me in plaster as I have to see the Orthopedic Doctor next week which is tomorrow. So I am still in pain and agony. So it is keep talking the Nurafen Plus and Panadol and come back later. Oh and by the way, keep off the legs. Yeah, right. Bit hard sometimes.

I also forgot to mention that last week I kicked my toes on a metal piece that divides the slate floor from the carpet. Guess what I did lol. I broke my toe on the right foot. It is the toe next to the little toe. I tell you. Sometimes.

So I think my stitching time will be speeded up, especially from tomorrow as School Holidays start. So guess who will be doing the housework. Yeah, right. I say no more.

Anyway, I'm really sorry if I haven't paid you a visit for quite awhile. I'm not really into blogging at the moment, although it is a good reason to keep my mind on other things.

If I don't post next week, can I wish you all a really Happy Christmas and have a lovely New Year. Take care. If you don't hear from me for awhile you'll know that they have grabbed me and they have sent me to hospital to have a knee replacement. Not looking forward to it. I remember the last operation I had lol.

Could The Headless Lady Be Eve

Here is this weeks progress on Betsy M. As you can see the headless lady now has a head. She also has a suitor, plus trees, sheep (or are they dogs lol) plus something that looks like a cat.

What I find interesting while stitching her and also while I was stitching Betsy Davis is whether these ladies are actually a Rhode Island version of Adam and Eve as they are both standing under apple trees. In this tree though there is no snake, but there is a bird.

In Betsy Davis there are 2 groups of these figures both standing on different sides of the apple tree. Interesting thought.

You might look at the above photo and think that I am having one of the moments where I forget where I am. But in between these 2 areas there are a lot of queen stitch strawberries and vines.

I thought before attempting this piece that I would go down to the bottom and work on Betsy's name and the border above and below. I will then go back and work on the queen stitch strawberries. Also coming out of the urns is a vine that runs along the top border above Betsy's name.

So when I look at Betsy and work out what is to be done there really isn't that much. I have to do the strawberries and vines. Fill in the urns and do the vine coming out of them as well as finish off doing portions of the border that cross over into the centre piece. A couple of leaves.

Then comes the interesting part as most of it has to be filled in with half alternating cross stitch in either black (mostly black), green around the saying and the fill in behind Betsy's name with cream. So I am thinking that Betsy will be finished in "A Couple of Days", no, no, no better make that a couple of weeks. We used to have a Comedy Show in Australia where there was a Greek Greengrocer called Con. Everything would be beautiful in "A Couple of Days". The no, no, no reminds me of a character in The Vicar of Dibley. Every time you ask Jim a question you would also be answered with no, no, no, no, yes. My youngest son keeps telling me that I watch to much TV, but that isn't the case.

I mostly listen to music during the day when I am by myself. My favourite music as the moment is listening to The Gypsy Kings. Don't understand a word of it, but I seem to have a lot of their music on my Ipod at the moment and I sing along with it all day long. My favourite song is called Montana which I think means - I walk among the mountains etc. I don't know what they do in the Mountains, but I love the song.

We have strange weather here at the moment. By Thursdays and Fridays the temperatures seem to rise really high. Saturdays have been unbearable with the heat and are dangerous days in these Mountains with dry lightening starting fires which have been all under control. By Mondays the weather starts getting cooler with showers and the other day it was quite cold. You could nearly have a heater going to keep warm. Strange weather, strange times.

Well, I hope that you have all have a lovely week. My youngest turns 15 on the weekend. My he is getting tall. He now towers over me lol. Although that's not hard these days as I seem to be shrinking lol.

The Headless Woman

No it's not that good old Aussie expression "Running around like a headless chicken". It is a headless woman lol.

Here is Betsy's progress. I spent days and days working behind the saying that starts - "May spotless ......" It is all worked in 739 in alternate half cross stitch. I always have aaahhh moments when I do this if I am not concentrating as I find I can easily slip into having each row going the same row. It is really easy to do when working among the words. This will stand out more later when I have to work 3052 (I think) around it. It is either needle weaving or further adventures in alternating cross stitch.

Pity she doesn't have a head yet. Oh well, it will come in the progress of time as they say. I love her dress though. Very pretty, sort of green/gold tones. It reminds me of a piece of Thai silk.

On Friday, I celebrated another Birthday. My they are flying past now. I had a lovely day. My eldest son who is married came up by train and spent the day with me. It was lovely as I don't get to spend "one-on-one" time very often. My DIL drove up when she finished work and then they joined my DH and I in going out to dinner. My youngest couldn't come as of all nights to pick he had to perform in a concert at his school. He is in a Brazilian Drum Band. My middle son lives in Sydney and had to work on Saturday morning. He was going to come up to see me on Sunday with his girlfriend, but because of a lot of bush fires that we had, he came up on Saturday as he had to go and fight one of the fires.

My DH started his fire fighting effort on Friday night when he received a phone call to say that they had to go out at 8.30p.m. He spent all night out in the bush and didn't get home till 4a.m. Didn't see much of him over the weekend. He was either fighting fires, patrolling fires or sleeping. All these fires were started by lightening. We had extremely high temperatures and dry storms. Bad combination for bush fires. Thankfully everybody is safe and no property was damaged.

I received some lovely things for my birthday. I should have taken some photos of them. I have this "thing" for Pandora Bracelets. My DH and younger Son bought me 2 silver and gold charms. A Christmas tree and a Tea Pot (I am always saying to my youngest son "Put the kettle on". My Dad and Sister bought me altogether 5 of the Murano glass beads in pinks and blues. My bracelet looks lovely. I have 2 of them. This one I am slowly converting to silver and gold charms. Would love a gold charm (wouldn't we all lol). But...... have you seen the price of those suckers.

My other Sons and DIL bought me a beautiful cushion for my bed. They bought me one last year for Christmas. I dropped a few hints that it looked lonely on the bed lol. Some lovely Body Shop goodies and I received a dvd from my middle son on a Classic English Comedy that I used to watch. His girlfriend was very naughty and bought me a lovely watch.

To all of my friends in the States. I hope that you and your family have a lovely Thanksgiving. It is always lovely to spend time with your family.