I'm Earlier Then Expected

I know I said that I would do this next week but I had a quite moment where I thought I'd get my son to put these photo's on the computer for me while I did some of my dreaded housework. It didn't take long at all as my DH bought us a new computer for Christmas because the old one was soooooo slow. Its amazing how quick this one is. I uploaded all these photo's in the time that it took the kettle to boil. So I will write my bit while I have a lovely cup of tea.

This is my progress on Margaret. She is still lovely, and the colours really remind me of my visits to Scotland. The colours remind me of the heathers I suppose they are called Glens. If it was England it would be moors. Truly beautiful and interesting places.
I had a lovely parcel from the lovely Joanie the other day. She sent me all these beautiful Mary Garry charts. I quite like Mary Garry's work. I had a old JCS magazine where she was the featured designer and it had 2 lovely pin cushions in it. They have always been on my list "to do", but as usual I haven't got there yet. Where does the time go. Yikes.

I thought I'd also show you this beautiful sampler. When my son was fixing the computer for me he found this lovely sampler on Goggle Images for my Deskground Background. She is called Margaret Logan and is a Scarlet Letter Sampler. On reading the above info discovered that she is an English sampler and has a lot of Quaker motifs in her. Apparently Margarets teacher was educated by Quakers and there are another 2 samplers by other girls that were also designed by the same teacher. All very interesting as they say.

While looking for something the other day I came across these 2 books with samplers that are on my "to do" list. It's quite long. I think the list will outgrow me. The sampler above is from a BH&G Special Interest Publications called Country Crafts 1997. The original sampler if you can see it is on the left. Its called Heart of Home Sampler. The one on the right is an adaption of the original.

All the following photos are from a book that I have had for a long time calledAustralian Needlework- Cross Stitch, Counted Thread and Canvaswork. It was published in 1993. The sampler below is called Kitty Bigg, 1793 and was started in England and bought out to Australia when the family immigrated out here. The graph for this sampler is included in the book. The original is owned by the Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney.

This sampler is one of the earliest Australian Samplers. It is called Emily Lakeland and was done in 1825 when she was 6 years old. The picture on the top is of Emily. The V.D.L. on the bottom is Van Diemans Land which is now know as Tasmania. Unfortunately there is no graph for this one in the book.

This one is called Catherine Toms 1867. This is also Australian and is in Canberra. Catherine was a Governess to a family who lived near Canberra and was probably a teaching aid for her students needlework. My book has graphs of only the smaller things e.g. the large flower, the tree, and baskets.
These two are very interesting. I actually have the graph from another publication of the smaller sampler. The smaller one is called sabel Buist, 1839 and she also lived in Van Diemans Land. The larger sampler is called Mary Ann Williams 1831 and is English. Both these 2 samplers are owned by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, which I now believe is The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Well I have finished my cuppa so I better get back to the dreaded housework. I have a pile of ironing to do that you wouldn't want to believe. Well I suppose its not that bad. Maybe an hours worth of quite contemplation while I do it or dreaming of my next sampler. Ahh samplers. Love em.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.