Happy Dance Time

Well, as you can see Betsy Davis and now finished and framed and hanging in my bedroom. She isn't in her final spot yet, as I need Betsy Manchester to hang besides her. They will eventually hang above my bed. I currently have 2 other needlework pictures, that did a long time ago hanging there and I plan on hanging them where Betsy D is now hanging. One on top of the other. These picture are of French Porcelain Dolls that I did when my eldest son who is nearly 25 was a little boy. So they are over 20 years old. There is a photo of them here and here.

I finished Betsy yesterday. All I had to do were the last 2 numbers in the date down the bottom, which didn't take my very long to do.

I decided last night to spend a little time on my Beatrix Potter. I have another motif and a bit of another one done. I don't know how long I will spend on Bea as I am itching to start Betsy Manchester. I also decided this morning that for me Bea works better as a day stitcher as it is all over one.

So I am thinking that I might start Betsy and every now and then stitch a motif on Bea. I joined the SAL for Bea, but I was totally hopeless at keeping to the commitment. I might make a deal with my self to stitch this every now a then when the urge overcomes me lol. I really don't know why I feel like this as it is such a beautiful thing. I think it might be after Elizabeth Cox and Betsy Davis I find it a bit boring. I seem to like samplers with a bit of a challenge lol. But my current plan sounds good, so I might see if I can stick to that.


I have so many other beautiful samplers all kitted up and ready to go. I am really looking forward to doing them.

It is another beautiful day in the Mountains today. I was able to wash my quilt that you can see in the background of these photos. I was able to get it totally dry and it has that nice clean smell. Hopefully I can wash another one tomorrow. Thank goodness the dust storms have gone. We had another one on Friday night/Saturday morning, but it was nothing like the earlier one. The earlier one was so amazing.

The End is Coming

The end is so near with Betsy Davis. As you can see I am now working on the black background. I don't know if you can see it, but the urn is outlined, I just have to fill it in. I decided to wait till I finished the background to do this.

So what remains in the black background, fill in the urn and then of course there is around 10 rows on the bottom which includes Betsy Davis's name. I still think that she will be finished in around 2 weeks time. I still can't get over how fast I have finished this sampler.

Well, what an amazing day it is here in New South Wales. We are in the middle of a huge dust storm. Everything outside is covered in red dust, which turns to mud when it is wet. I am sure owners of car wash establishments are jumping up and down today with glee.

We awoke this morning earlier than normal as my youngest son had to be at school very early as his year were going on a school camp for 3 days camping in tents. Not a good idea at the moment I might add. There was this orange glow all around and you just couldn't see that far ahead. The Blue Mountains are the Red Mountains today.

Anybody flying into Sydney today would have been so disappointed as all the well known icons e.g. Harbour Bridge and Opera House were not visible.

I know that the planes were either delayed, diverted or cancelled. The Sydney Ferries weren't running at all. It is still extremely windy outside and I think this dust will be around all day. Guess who isn't doing their washing today.

I know while driving my Son to school this morning, people were ring the radio stations wondering if this was the end of the world. Well I am still here, so I guess it's not today.

I just realised that my subject for this post could be taken two ways lol. I am referring to the sampler of course.

Another Betsy Update

Well, as you can see Betsy D now has black background in all the right places except on the right hand side. I am now working on the Queen Stitch flowers down this portion of her. I am wondering if she will be finished in 2-3 weeks. I can't believe how this one has flown along. I know that when I did the American Sampler, it took me 12 months to go, but I was working at the time, which would have stretch it out a bit.

I am really looking forward to finishing this one and starting her Sister, although I'm toying with the idea of finishing Beatrix which I really must do. I already have the frame for Bea and it is sitting besides my Son's desk. If I don't get it hung on the wall, I will end up having to buy another one because of broken glass lol.


Here is Betsy from the top. She is everything that I expected and more. I just love working on her.

I have been very busy in the garden over the last week and weekend. Although it wasn't such a good idea for me physically. By Monday I couldn't walk very well. But it is amazing what a heat bag will do. My garden is looking quite pretty at the moment. I have forget-me-nots all over the place and violets out. Now if I could get somebody to cut the lawn for me (ha ha) it would look lovely.

The fire season has started early out here and they are really worried about bush fires this year. We had some lovely warm weather over the weekend and by Sunday, it was a Total Fire Ban sort of day. My DH and one of my DS were "On Standby" up at the Fire Shed. So they were no use to me. The youngest DS had a lot of school projects to be done so it was just me, Sally the dog and my iPod in the garden.

I got my copy of Dan Brown's new book yesterday. I think I was the 4th person to get it. I gave it to my DH to read, but my youngest has pinched it from him. Oh well, he doesn't take very long to get through books. He usually costs me a small fortune trying to keep books up for him.

Usually when school holidays are coming up, I will buy him a couple of books and I think before the holiday has started them, he has finished them. That is how he has fallen under the spell of Dan Brown. I am trying to get him into the classics, but for some reason, I am not having a lot of luck. Ah well, he told me the other day that the holidays will be here again in 3 weeks. I don't know, he always seems to be on holidays.

A Little Bit of Background

After finishing the top portion of Betsy, I decided to have a little break. I decided to start filling in the black background. Mainly to split this task up and a change is always good.

She is looking ever so lovely and I can't wait to finish her. She and her Sister Betsy Manchester have always been up there among my favourite samplers. I am eventually hoping to hang both of them in my bedroom.

I now have Betsy Manchester all kitted up and she is ready to go as well. I am looking forward to the experience of working on her. What a great pity that there are no more samplers that we can do from the Mary Balch school.

We have been having typical Spring weather here. We had a beautiful weekend. This morning was overcast and then it started to rain. Now the sun is shining. It is still a little bit chilly. I keep saying to myself "Will I light the fire or not?" So far I have resisted the temptation. BTW I have my slippers on so my feet are nice and warm lol.

We had a lovely weekend. It was Fathers Day here yesterday and also my DIL's birthday. My eldest son came up on Friday night, but unfortunately they had to go home before lunch on Saturday. Yesterday we went down to have lunch with my Dad and it was lovely. It is always lovely to see him and my Sister.

Well, I hope that you have a lovely week. I am still trying to catch up with my housework. For some reason I keep getting distracted. I am sorry if I haven't had a chance get to pay you a visit, but I will get there lol. Have a good week.

Strawberries are done

Here is an update on Betsy. I finished working the strawberries (I think they are strawberries lol) along the bottom and the black background. I think she is such a stunning sampler.

I have decided for a change of pace to go back up the top and finish that section. When I have finished doing this I might start doing some more of the black background. Hopefully Betsy has only a few more weeks work in her. I also have to put her name down on the bottom. But she is looking good

Every time, I go to my friend Karen's needlework store I keep falling in love with Larry the Lamb. So of course I had to buy him and make him didn't I. Larry is made from wool felt and is filled with crushed walnuts. I have him in a tray that I use which contains my threads, scissors etc. He is very handy when I am using a few different needles at one time.

Before taking the photos for this blog, I picked my self a little bunch of Parma white violets. Aren't they beautiful. Violets are one of my favourite flowers. I love the perfume they have, although many years ago when I first started working I bought myself a bottle of Yardley April Violets. I found that stuff quite strong and every time I wore it which wasn't often, the smell would give me headaches. Funny I only ever bought one bottle of it lol.

Well, I have finally finished doing the boxes that I was doing. These ones took forever to do as they all had to been cut out. They actually look a lot better than they do in photos.

Now I will be able to get to my dreaded housework lol. It is always a case of a women's work is never done.

I hope you all have a lovely week. Guess what I will be doing this week. Housework.

A Beautiful Book

Well as you can see Betsy D is moving right along. I haven't quite finished needleweaving behind the people on the right. The ones on the left hand side look ok though. When I have finished this bit, I have another lot of Queen Stitch to do. I suppose they will look like either buds or acorns. Who can tell lol. Then behind all this it will be black. I am still loving working on this sampler. As you know it is a sampler that I have wanted for many years.

It is really interesting with Betsy Davis as I have found another 2 samplers while researching the Mary Balch school. One of them is called Ruth Edd and the other is called Betsy Wardwell. If I get these links right check out how much Betsy Wardwell went for when she was auctioned a few years ago. All I can say is wow. It would be lovely if ours were worth that much. wouldn't it.

The other day I found this beautiful book and of course being a Jane Austen fan I had to buy it. What a beautiful book it is. It is called "Jane Austen's Sewing Box" - Craft Projects & Stories From Jane Austen's Novels by Jennifer Forest.

A lot of the craft projects are Regency Projects. But it is simply a beautiful book with small pieces from her books and small portions from her letters.

There are lots of photos like this one, which shows fashion in the Regency period.

There are also a few photos of miniatures that I love. This one also shows how to tie a cravat. Very useful lol. You never know when you have to tie one. Do you think he looks like Mr Darcy.

Among the projects that you can make there is this workbag. Very pretty.

Then there is this gentleman. Obviously an officer. I wonder who he could be lol.

I think it is actually an Australian book as it is published by Murdoch Books. But I know that Amazon in the UK have it as does Amazon in the US. I found it quite interesting with
Amazon US as they have this book listed new at $39.21, but they have I used book from $98.88. Interesting.

I must tell you, that I have found an absolutely brilliant cleaning cloth that really works. Most women will have them in their house and they work like magic. It is "panty hose". You use your old pairs of them. You can also use "knee high" stockings". It is a really good cloth that is very gentle at removing things e.g. soap scum, on stainless steel and also works brilliantly with bi-carb and vinegar.

We have a combustion fire and every few days I clean the glass of it to remove the soot that has built up. It works fine on the hot glass and removes all the soot so that we can see the wood happily burning away. When I have finished I just give it a wash and it is ready for the next time. They are also brilliant at cleaning around taps. You put the panty hose around the back of the tap and grab hold of each end and run it backwards and forwards.

Also I am sorry if I haven't paid you a visit lately. I have been very busy with my box project and hopefully I will finish it next week. The ones that I am doing at the moment have taken me a long time to do as they are decoupaged and I have had to cut all the motifs out. All I can say is that the end is near, thank goodness. I will be glad to see the end of them.

What amazing weather we are getting at the moment. I think Spring has come early, although my fire is still burning happily to keep the house warm. On Sunday, I went to visit my Dad in Sydney and it was definitely a "light and frilly" day.

I hope you all have a lovely week and thank you for stopping by. I really enjoy meeting all of you.

A Little Bit More

I hope that you can see the lady and the man on Betsy D. They are looking a little bit pale at the moment, but when I finish this strip, they will all be surrounded by blue. The best way that I can describe how this blue part will be done is a running stitch over alternating threads. A bit like needleweaving.

The background around the Queenstitch flowers is done in black in an alternating half cross stitch.

I am so happy that I decided to do Betsy D and her Sister Betsy Manchester. They are such beautiful samplers. I am slowly collecting Rhode Island samplers and it is interesting the differences between them. The Mary Balch samplers have more work on them, which I think makes them look quite stunning.

I wanted to show you this beautiful parcel that I received the other day from my very special friend who doesn't have a blog. I met this lovely lady a while ago and we just "clicked". We have similar tastes and we know what each other likes. She has been helping me with my collection of Sampler and Antique Needlework Magazines and she sent me some the other day. She also included a few beautiful things that I didn't have, which really made my day. I love everything that she sent me and I am looking forward to doing a special sampler that I have in my collection with the beautiful collection of silks that she sent me.

I am sorry if this post is short, but I haven't been feeling to good for the last few days. I have a slight migraine that won't go away.