There Was Just Something About Maria.

Sorry that I'm taking long periods between blogs.  I just haven't been in the blogging mood lately.

Since my last post, I have finished Marquoir de Justine.  Just need to get a frame for her.  Joined the SAL for Susan Singleton, but that's another story and started this beautiful sampler.

This one of my dream samplers.  Her name is Maria Foster and she is an Australian Sampler although they think that she was worked in England and brought to Australia at some time, probably when people were coming here to Colonize Australia.

I first saw Maria about 15 or 16 years ago in an Australian Magazine called Handmade.  They were doing a story about Peg Fraser who charted this beautiful sampler.  The sampler is on display at Sovereign Hill Museum in Victoria.  It is an old Gold Mining area and the Museum is one of those ones where everybody gets dressed up in period costume.  I remember reading that every time Peg went there to take photos or sit and chart it, she had to get dressed into costume.  As soon as I saw Maria I fell in love with her and she was on my wish list for a long time.

Earlier in the year I became friends with a lovely lady who had just moved to the Mountains and she invited me to come for morning tea.  While there she showed me her work.  My goodness, my new friend does the most beautiful work.  It is a pity that she doesn't have a blog as her work is really beautiful.  It was while we were comparing our stash that I saw that she had Maria and straight away I knew that I had found her.  My friend gave me a copy of her.  I have searched high and low on the internet and have been able to nothing on this beautiful sampler.

 

 So this is what Maria looks like.  She has a lot of reds and greens with a little bit of turquoise and gold.

This is where I am up to at the moment.

 Isn't she beautiful.  The right hand side is similar to the left hand side btw.

 All this area underneath the house has a collection of animals.  Some are a bit hard to see at the moment.  There are 2 people, some dogs, a goose or is it a duck lol.  A funny looking cow.  I'm working on a turkey at the moment and there is of course a SHEEP.  I like sheep lol.

I have also been working on this little piece.  As soon as I saw this cushion from With Thy Needle and Thread, I fell in love with it.  I thought that it would look nice done on 40ct linen and when I have finished it I will put it on top of my bowl of cushions. 

 Now you may be wondering about this.  This is something that is really old.  It is about 100 years old was done by my Great Grandfather who was English.  He and my Great Grandmother came to Australia along with my Grandmother before World War I.  Many years ago one of my Aunts gave it to me and thought that I would appreciate it. 

Yesterday I brought it out and showed it to my Youngest Son who since his trip to England has become English mad.  I was trying to teach him how to do Berlin Woolwork to finish it off but I have a feeling that I will be doing that.  I told him that if he looked after it, that he could have it.  It now hangs over the end of his bed and when he gets into bed he folds it up and puts it onto the chair in his room.

 I have decided to take part in Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  I have decided to finish off my Rebecca Cullin Sampler.  That one is quite a challenge.  I haven't done anything on it since I posted about it in a previous post.

Well, that's about it at the moment.  I promise to not take so long to post next time.

Thank you for stopping by.

Where Does The Time Go

 My Goodness, time flies when you are having fun so they say.  Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted.  I haven't really been in the mood to do it.

Today here is a beautiful Spring day so I thought that I would take advantage of the sun shining and show you what I have been up to.  For some reason the photos came out the wrong way, but never matter.

Right, the first photo is of a Scarlet Letter Sampler called Susan Singleton.  Terri, Deb and I are doing a SAL that is going to take us 2 years to complete.  We have to post every 3 months.  The first post is to show our fabric and threads.  I am going to work Susan on 40ct Antique White Linen and I am using DMC threads as called for.  Looking forward to starting this sampler.

This should all be interesting as I usually only work on one sampler at a time as I find it sometimes confusing.  But for some reason I have 5 samplers including Susan Rambo going at the moment.  Susan will make it 6.  My other sampler is a very special Australian Sampler that I have been looking for, for a long long time, but I will talk about that one, another time.

Sorry about the linen not being ironed.  I just thought that I would take the photos on a whim and haven't had a chance to iron them.  I usually do that when I am finished.

The one about is my Rebecca Cullin.  I am doing Rebecca in the original version and I have to be in the mood to do specialty stitches lol.




This my Hestera Harmer Sampler that I bought a few years ago.  It is a Queenstown Sampler Design.  Hestera is very special to me as I am related to her.  Haven't figured out exactly how, but I know that I am related.  I think that Hestera is my Anne's GGG Niece or something like that.   I have been do a lot of family research and I am working on the connection.  Must tell you that that Hestera and my Ann are related to some very important people, wayyyyyyyy back lol.

The other sampler that I have been working on is one of my favorite samplers that I have wanted to do for a long time.  It is Marquoir de Justine.  Justine is such a pretty girl.

As you can see I have a lot on my plate lol.  Don't know how I ended up with so many all at once, but I will get through it all.

Well, that is all about it I guess.  Don't know much else.  To much knowledge can be dangerous sometimes so they say lol.  Thank you for stopping by.

Miss Ann Cottee

 Happy dance time, Miss Ann Cottee is now finished and framed and now hanging on the wall.

I thought because she is a sampler that you don't see that often and the photo of her on The Scarlet Letter site is so small where you can't see all the detail that I would take a lot of photos for you to see. Bewarned, this is photo heavy.

Miss Ann is one of those samplers that are a joy to stitch and it isn't until you see her that you realise what a wonder piece she is.  She has these amazing ladies or angels who are scattered throughout the piece.  I don't know if they are 1800's version of Smurfs lol or Pixies.

The only over ones (such a difference from my last sampler lol) is with Anne's details.

More funny ladies.

It was actually the house that attracted me to Ann and also the aura that surrounds the building.

Top left hand side.

Top right.

                                  

These 2 ladies are the ones that I love lol.  They look as if they are playing tennis.  Margaret are you seeing this.  They look as if they are holding tennis racquets, but in fact I think that they are holding fans.

Down the bottom again in the middle again.

This year we have been having a lot of problems with our internet.  We are supposed to have unlimited internet access by apparently the provider has changed the deal without telling us.  It is similar to when companies such as a biscuit company reduces the size of their biscuits, but still charge you the same amount. They hope that you don't notice.  But with a teenager in the house, after a week or two, you do notice.

So I am sorry that I haven't been able to visit a lot of blogs or leave comments.

The weather in the Mountains has been very Mountain like lately.  Wet and misty.  It is good weather to sit inside and stitch.  Pity that the housework gets in the way.  Darn lol.

I hope that you are all well and thank you for dropping by.

Ann Cottee

 My goodness, it has been a long time since I last posted.  Since that time, my DH and I have been on a couple of trips over a couple of weekends.

We have been up to the Mid North Coast of New South Wales to an area where my DH loves, as it is home.  We went to the Taree and Port Macquarie area.  The photo above is in a placed called Wingham.  The B&B we stayed in was across the road from this famous Vampire Fighter Plane.

 This photo is from a Mountain in the Camden Haven area.  This Mountain is called The Little Brother.  In the area there are a couple of Mountains and when Captain Cook was passing by in 1770 he called them The Brothers as they reminded him of the Mountains in Yorkshire.  Little Brother is the smallest of them and there is a viewing area on the top of it.  Down below you can see the Camden Haven which is a River and 2 Lakes.  Looking towards the left is Port Macquarie and that is the Pacific Ocean.

These are some of the beaches along the Pacific Coast  at Port Macquarie.  As you can see it was a very windy day when we were there.

This is one of the light houses that are around the area.  It is a dangerous shipping area near the Coast.

This is Laurieton.  I was taking photos of the Pelicans that are always there, but not sure if they are in this photo.

This is my current piece of work.  It have been working on another SL chart called Ann Cottee.  It is a sampler that I have loved for a long time.  You notice that I seem to like SL charts lol.

I love these funny little ladies who are scattered throughout the sampler.

I love the halo that surrounds the house.

and the potted plants that are in the bottom window.

I'm still working on the house filling in the bricks.  Although last night I thought that I would have a change from doing them and worked on the bath on the left hand side while watching The Voice Australia.

I have been really enjoying watching The Voice.  We have as judges, Seal, Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Delta Goodrem and Keith Urban.  My goodness there have been some really wonderful singers there and some wonderful ones have fallen by the wayside.

Well, that is about all I know at the moment.  Every day it is getting cooler here as Winter will be sticking its head up soon.  I have enjoyed watching all the beautiful deciduous trees changing colour.

I hope that all is well in your part of the world.

Ta Dah

Thank you to everybody for your kind comments regarding my beautiful sampler.  I took these late yesterday afternoon and hadn't decided where to hang it.  It is now hanging at the end of the hall way along with some of my Dutch samplers

As I said yesterday I really enjoyed working on this sampler except for a couple of places lol.  Besides cross stitch there is also stem stitch,;  satin stitch and tent stitch.  The sampler is stitched on 40ct Antique White linen and I used the charted DMC selection.  If you have in mind to do this sampler remember that it is quite big in fact it is huge and that you need more than a fat quarter.  Also be careful where you start.  I would only start it 2 inches from the top otherwise you will end up like I did.

You might be wondering what happened to the green line that was around it.  Well, because I had a $25 off voucher that expired at the end of February, I decided to go and order it from the Framing Warehouse where I get my frames from.  I had worked out all of the dimensions so that I knew exactly how big it would be.

But unfortunately the man who measured it misunderstood what I wanted and measured it so that the green line was hidden underneath the frame.  I think at the time that he was more interested in getting me to bring it back when I had finished it and getting him to frame the whole thing.  At nearly $300 that wasn't going to happen.  But the green line turned out to be a good guide and I don't think that he could have done any better.

Have a wonder Easter break.

Happy Dance Time

 Well, as you can I have finally finished The Tablet Sampler by Scarlet Letter.  It is such a beautiful sampler and I really enjoyed working on it except for 2 Commandments lol.  If the 2 long ones were as short of the others it would have really enjoyed it more.  But when you think of it, if the 2 long ones weren't there, we wouldn't have the glorious floral border.

Because this sampler is so big, it is really hard to show it in all of its glory.  This is the top section that I just finished

and this is it in all of its stunning glory.  Isn't it beautiful.

I have the frame and I am going to frame it either later today or tomorrow.

I would like to wish you all a lovely Easter and I hope that you get a lot of stitching in.  Tomorrow is Good Friday here and  I hope to get start my new piece.

Thank you for dropping by and saying hi.  Hope the Easter Bunny is good to you lol.

Thank God The Sun Is Out

You may be wondering why I chose this title for my blog today. I am so sick and tired of rain. This Summer has been so wet. We have had so much rain that all the dams that were nearly dry 2 years ago are now over flowing. Everywhere you go on the East Coast of Australia somewhere there is a flood. In New South Wales where I live 75% of the State has been somehow affected by flood. Apparently New South Wales is the size of France so that gives you an idea of how much water there is.

My friend Suzanne of Squazi & The Chicken posted photos of the Nepean/Hawkesbury Rivers that flow at the bottom of the Blue Mountains. Suzanne lives down the bottom of the Mountain and I live up near the top. This part of the river wasn't to bad but further down some of the lower bridges were flooded and had to be closed. Thankfully the water is starting to recede. A lot of the water in this river has come because of the non stopping heavy rain that we had for 7 days that came into Warragambah Dam which is the major water supply for Sydney. 2 years ago the dam was at 20% capacity and on Friday evening it started to over flow. BTW if you have ever read a wonderful book called The Secret River by Kate Grenville. This is the river that is in the book. If you have ever been to The Blue Mountains from Sydney, this is the bridge that you would have crossed.

Now back to important things lol. This is my progress on The Tablet Sampler. The Tablet Sampler is a very big sampler and it is sometimes slow going. But I think that I am doing well. I have already ordered the frame for it as I had a $25 off voucher that I had to use so hopefully the frame will arrive around about the time that I finish the sampler.

As you can see I am back doing Commandments again. Thankfully the ones on this side are short and sweet. The one that I have already done is the longest. A few of them are only one liners so that is good.

Here is the other side with the lovely white flower. The flower is stitched in stem stitch that goes around and around. It is quite simple and looks beautiful.

I forgot to show you the last time that I posted my Ann Grant framed. She is sitting in my stitching chair for the photo. She now hangs on a little wall in my dining room. I was quite happy with the frame. The frame goes perfectly with the colours of Ann.

I don't know if you can see on the table behind the chair a collection of decanters. 2 of these belonged to my Great Grandmother. There are 3 altogether and I have them all. When I was little they used to be in a beautiful rosewood box. For some reason that I never figured out (maybe because she was young) my Mother decided that she would paint the box pink. Then she decided that she didn't like it so she threw the box away. I often used to tell her how much the whole thing would be worth if we still had it.

A few weeks ago I happened to be looking on ebay and I saw this lovely wooden sewing box and showed it to my DH. It was listed as being in Sydney. My DH put a bid and we won it. Imagine our surprise a little bit later when the auction had finished when we discovered that it was in Wentworth Falls. 2 villages away from where we live. We were able to pick it up the next day and it now holds all my sewing odds and sods.

The Tablet Sampler and Bathurst

My goodness, it is ages since I posted. My Sister kept asking me when was I going to post again lol. But as always there have been a lot of things going on in my life. Christmas, School Holidays for 6 weeks etc. etc. Internet problems thrown into the mix.

First off, please excuse the following photos of the Tablet Sampler. My computer seems to have gone crazy when I uploaded these ones. I had to disconnect the camera from the computer and hope that the one above didn't go sideways as well. But thankfully it is ok.

It doesn't look like I have made that much progress on The Tablet Sampler, but actually I have done quite alot. The 4th Commandment was very long winded and went on and on like the 3rd one.

I decided when I finally finished it that I would take a journey down the bottom to see how that came out. The bottom is really stunning. I don't know if you can see, but the white flower in the corner is filled in with just all stem stitch going around and around like a finger print. It is quite stunning. Also the blue flower besides it is also filled in in stem stitch.

If you are thinking of doing The Tablet, be aware that this is a very big sampler. You need more than a fat quarter and don't do as I did and under estimate the size of it length wide. See where the tacking thread is down the bottom. That is where the sampler comes to when it is finished. I will have about half an inch left over the play around with when I frame it. But, it could have been worse. I could have ended up with nothing at all and I think that you would have heard me crying all over the place.

These flowers along the sides that remind me of Edelweiss are all satin stitch as are some of the little pom pom type buds.

While doing the verse one day, I got quite bored with it and I thought that I would start my next sampler to give myself a little break from it all. This is my start on Rebecca Cullin by The Scarlet Letter. Another sampler that I have been in love with for ages. Sorry this one is on its side as well.

I also started doing Susan Rambo. I thought that I would start this one in the middle as I really loved the duck. This one is on 40ct Meadow Rue. My dear friend Tanya from The Scarlet House very kindly sent me this piece of material last year when I first saw Susan as I have a lot of trouble getting the lovely hand dyed fabrics that a lot of people are able to get.

I thought that I would show you some photos of Bathurst that I took over the Christmas/New Year period. My Father and my Sister came up to stay for a few days and on one of the days they were here, we went for a lovely drive to Bathurst which is about an hour and 15 minutes away from Katoomba. Bathurst is a really lovely country town.

Bathurst is actually the oldest inland town in Australia. It was the gateway to the gold fields and there are a lot of Victorian buildings there. I loved these ones on the corner near the Station.

By the way if you are into Hatch and Patch products by Anni Downs. This is where her shop is.

Unfortunately we didn't go there as they were shut over the Christmas period.

Here are a few of the lovely buildings. The old Court House.

This used to be the old Post Office, but is now Bathurst's Music Centre and also Historical Centre.
This is the beautiful park in the centre of the City.

While we were there we went for a drive over to the train station to see this old steam train. We thought that my Father would enjoy seeing it and in the last few years it has been restored and is now on display outside the railway station

This train was the steam locomotive that one of Australia's former Prime Ministers, Ben Chifley 1942-45 before he got into Politics.

My Father's Grandfather was also a steam train driver and Ben Chifley used to be his fireman when he was a young man. It is quite possible we think that my Gr Grandfather also drove this locomotive as he taught Ben to drive an engine. That is my youngest son btw.

Well, that is about it. I'm sorry if I haven't left any comments on blogs lately. I have been having a lot of trouble leaving them for some reason. As I said earlier, I have been having a lot of problems with our internet and we had to get a new piece that was our internet/telephone set up. Hopefully things will go back to normal soon.

Thank you for stopping by. Hopefully I won't take so long next time to post again.