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.

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.