Rebecca and Maria are Framed

 

My goodness, it's ages since I have posted, but I have had a lot of things going on.

I thought that you might like to see Rebecca Cullin now that she is framed.  She looks quite amazing.

I also finished Maria Foster and I framed her yesterday.

This frame is a little bit different from what I usually pick and I'm really happy with the choice.

Here is a close up of the frame.

Rebecca Cullin is Finished

I finished Rebecca Cullin last night.  She is such a stunning sampler and she is one that I have wanted to do for a long long time.

She is stitched on 40ct antique white linen with DMC.  The stitches are mainly cross stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch, bullion stitch, french knots and algerian eyes.

Thank you for stopping by.  I hope that you have enjoyed looking at this stunning sampler.

Bit more of Rebecca

 Thought that you might like to see where I'm up to with Rebecca.

I enjoyed working on the fan Carnation.  It is such an import piece of this sampler.

This is where I'm currently working.  Most of what I'm doing at the moment is satin stitch.  There is some more Grub or Bullion Stitch where the berries are on the end section.  they are similar to the ones on the left.

I'm hoping to finish Rebecca very soon.  I just have to do the flowers that are on both sides of the plant in the middle.  I have been enjoying spending my time with Rebecca wondering what she was like and if she enjoyed working this stunning sampler as well.

Thank you for your good wishes towards my DH.  He is improving every day thank goodness.

My Beautiful Frame Has Arrived

 Remember last post, I told you that I had won the 50 pound gift certificate from Needle Needs on Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  I was so excited about winning this as it came at a time when I needed a huge pick me up.

Well, it arrived late on Thursday afternoon and I was so excited.  It is something that is simply superb.  The craftsmanship is unbelievable.  I have always had a "thing" for hand made things especially when made of wood.  I asked what the frames were made from and was told that they were made from sustainable English Beech.

The things that fascinated me with the frames was the screws.  I wondered if they were made from plastic, but they everything on the frame is wood.

I found that the frame was very easy to put together and the claims that you can get your work as tight as a drum are totally true.

The bars that I picked are 30 inch ones.

 I found though that because they were so long that I had a lot of trouble trying to work with them on my leather chair.  I ended up feeling like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Not good at my age.  I ended up with a pain in the neck and had a lot of trouble with my knees which aren't the best.

So after a day of serious thinking on what to do as I think because the bars are so long that a stand is definitely a must.  But at the moment, they aren't available because Needle Needs are awaiting parts.   So I'm waiting for one to come in.

So after a lot of thinking, I wondered if my Hoop Lap Frame would work.  Guess what, it does, yay.  I found that if I put my Lap Frame with the middle hoop on it as if I'm going to use it, but with the hoop down, that it will support my Millennium Frame, so that I can work on Rebecca using two hands.  I must say that I'm a very happy camper.  I have also come up with a way where I can use my Magnifying Glass that clipped onto my hoop before.  I have one of those LoRan metal magnetic boards that you can attach your charts to. I made a slip bag out of white felt and I can slip the board in and out with the Magnifying Glass attached to it and the metal isn't touching my sampler.

This is the current state of Rebecca.  My goodness, she is such a stunning girl.  I have some really stunning samplers in my collection, but this one is a real stunner.

I thought that you would like to see the berries.  I have finished the leaves by the way.  The berries are all filled in with grub stitch.  For some reason, I have always enjoyed doing this stitch lol.

This bit is waiting for the flowers to be done, but I thought that I would go a bit further up and do the section where the berries are.

This is where I'm currently working.  I just have to put the "wings" on the flower and then I can fill all of this section in with Satin Stitch.

Thank you for all your good wishes towards my DH.  He is getting better thank goodness, but he still has good days and bad days.  He still gets the occasional chest pain which is a worry, but they are still working out his medication.  My family and I are just thankful that this problem occurred when it did and not when things could be to late to do anything.

I just want to say a big Thank You for stopping by.  It is nice to know that I have friends interested in me and my love of samplers :).

The Angry Bird Isn't So Angry These Days

 Thought that I had better post a photo of my Angry Bird who isn't so much of an Angry Bird now but a beautiful handsome fellow.

It has been a while since I posted a photo of Rebecca, but I have had a lot of things going on in my life that have been quite worrying.  My DH has serious health problems.  But they have found out what is causing him to have a "Dickie Ticker" and hopefully he will be ok.

This is Rebecca in full.  I just have to finish off the bottom section, hopefully by the weekend, do the other tree that is on the right hand side and then do some more interesting sewing with the beautiful big carnations and the flowers.

Since I last posted I was the lucky winner of the 50 pound voucher to purchase one of the beautiful Millennium Frames.  I order the 30 inch frame and it is winging it's way Downunder.  When it arrives I shall take a photo of it to show you.  Hopefully it will be next week.  I would like to thank Nicola and also Needle Needs to donating this wonderful prize.  I must say that the night that I found out that I had won this wonderful prize I was so over joyed.  My life was slightly pear shaped at the time.

The Angry Bird

This week I have been working on my Rebecca Cullin Sampler for Nicola's SL Year.  I have always loved this sampler and thought that I would love to do it.   The only part though that had me rolling my eyes was the freehand stitching.

When I put Rebecca down I was working on the leaves on the tree on the left, but thought that I would be a bit adventurous and try and work out the tree with the bird in it.  This is a real eye roller lol.

I decided that I would start by working out the outline for the whole bit and I still have to finish off it's tail.  I asked my husband if the bird looked ok and he had a quick look as they usually do and told me that it looked like a Penguin.  Really.
  

Then I thought that I would ask my Sister if it looked ok and sent her a photo of it and I got the message back that it looked like one of the Angry Birds.  So may I present an Angry Bird.

As you know the last time I posted, I told you that my second Son was getting married and I thought that you would like to see a couple of photo's.  Only a couple though as we are all quite shy and hate having our photo's taken.

This is my second Son Adam and his wife Kimberley.  They are standing in front of the car that brought Adam and his Best Man to the Wedding.  It is a Shelby Mustang Eleanor and is very cool.

Hopefully you  can see her beautiful dress in this photo.  Her dress was truly beautiful.  It had a Peplum from the waist which made the dress simply beautiful.

This is the wedding party.  The wedding was held in a beautiful Chapel in Sydney.  My youngest Son was the third Groomsman from the left hand side or two down from the Groom.

This is my outfit.  I really hate having my photo taken so you don't get many of them lol.  It was a really beautiful wedding and the day was just perfect.  The happy couple are now on their Honeymoon on a Cruise around the Pacific.

Thank you for stopping by.

It's Maria's Turn

It is lovely to have some nice cool weather for a few days.  Last Friday was terrible.  It was Sydney's hottest day since the 1930's.   Thankfully where I live, it just didn't get up to those terrible conditions although, it was still very hot.

Over the past week I have been working on Maria Foster again.  I have finished doing all of the things that are on the lawn of the house.  There are 2 people, a turkey, a cow, some sheep, either a goose or a duck, haven't worked that one out yet and some dogs.

I'm thinking of doing the lawn in the section either one of two ways.  Either all Satin Stitch or Stem Stitch.  The reason why I have thought this is that I have been looking at a few of many books on samplers and I have noticed that where there are houses with lawns, that most of the time the lawn is done either way.  I'm still thinking about which stitch that I will use, but it might be Stem Stitch.  But you never know I might change my mind.  It has been changing every other day lol.

I thought that you would like to see some more of the samplers in the room where the other samplers that I showed last time.  In this room all of the walls are covered in samplers.

On this wall we have Hannah Lancaster;  SL's Sophia's Sampler;  Harriet Burry;  Elizabeth Cox which is another Scarlet Letter Sampler (I have a few of them :));  Lois Minshall that is dedicated to my Mother;  a Dutch Spot Sampler;  Dutch Beauty and the Richmond Sampler.

I should mention that both Dutch Beauty and the Dutch Spot Sampler are worked over one on 32ct linen.

]Most of these samplers, you saw the last time I posted.  The one underneath the What Not on the wall is another SL sampler called Grazing Sheep.

Very busy week this week, one of my Son's is getting married in a few days, so it is all action stations this week lol.

Anyway, I hope that you have a wonderful week and thank you for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my Samplers.

I have just been asked about my Dutch Beauty being stitched over one on 32 ct linen.  My camera's battery is charging up for the big day, but I have gone back to my original post for this sampler and here is the link to it.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibPdpImaFSGGd2R-hFricv8hCEtBXjj6AcYnr_9B8dNszmZ6s44SB649KUIVg0RSElMs0pXY3oosStmOhT4ojQa8Q9HyEdph0uDg0gLbUMsgBM5lbEPqbI1-diFkPdug7Fspu2lv-q/s1600/mum+blog.bmp     and a close up of the swan

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRbvIRc2Ipsn9D82EF_lcQygb2YKle9W0WSZh64b7UhOMh8T0S06C-foMYPfa0PYzrd8tuKtNBYQeZMLFEbhNcvrLJChzGfXDmRTFqK1PkjdWvJbYzGRFc6VO31tSnElZru3eUlJ0/s1600/mum+blog2.bmp  Sorry, this is a little bit fuzzy.

Dutch Beauty was stitched on a Fat Quarter and it measures 20 inches wide by 12 inches high.

Rebecca Cullin

Thought that I had better make a blog post today.  I have been working on my Rebecca Cullin as it is my chosen piece for Nicola's Scarlet Letter year.  I wanted to get down towards the bottom and haven't been working on  Maria Foster so there is no progress on that one.  I'm hoping to spend 2 weeks with Rebecca and 2 weeks with Maria.

Over the last few days I have been concentrating on Rebecca's very interesting bottom section although is still lot that goes underneath this section.

Rebecca is a sampler that has a lot of challenges and I always enjoy working on pieces that will challenge my abilities.  After coming to a stand still in my previous post, I decided to do what the instructions advise and that is to do all of the cross stitch before attempting doing any of the specialty stitches.

I have been doing that, but decided to tackle the tree that is on the left hand side.  The tree is filled in with just stem stitch and I always enjoy doing this stitch.  One thing though,it certainly eats up the thread.  At the moment I'm giving all of the branches leaves.

Thought that I would show you where my Marquoir de Justine is hanging.  She is hanging in one of my bedrooms above the bed next to Ann Cottee, Jane Self, Beatrix Potter, Elizabeth Welfare and a Rhode Island Sampler that I did a while ago that was in an issue of SANQ.

My goodness, it has been so hot here in Mountains and in Australia.  We have been having some horrible bush fires and everybody is on alert when the temperatures get up into the 40 degrees C.  Thankfully today is a lot cooler, but there is more heat coming later in the week.

Thank you for stopping by.  I will try to post more often.  Just haven't been in the mood to do it that often lately. Guess we all go through that on occasions.