WIP- House Sampler

I finally got the camera out and my husband took a photo of my House Sampler WIP. As you can see, I haven't done too much of it. This branch will have a mirror image sort of branch with a bird, and under both branches will be homes. You can see the top of the house that is just under the branch. I am excited about doing this huge sampler, even though I really don't have time for a new project right now.

All the trick or treaters have gone home now. We didn't have that many this year, really. I think a lot of folks just don't trick or treat anymore. When I was a kid, I recall the streets being full of children in shiny costumes. That was a great time! I loved it so when our kids were small and we took them out in their costumes. Those were wonderful times, full of great memories.

It's off now to prepare for another day. I hope you had a wonderful Wednesday, and if you celebrate Halloween I hope you had a good one.

The Long Haul Working

The week has been busy, but thankfully I did have a chance last Sunday to work more on my House Sampler. I'll take a picture soon and post it.

Here's a photo of our dear dog performing a trick with our daughter. I apologize if I've posted it here before, but seeing it here cheers me up and makes me smile.

Hope you enjoy it, too.

What hobby?

This past week has been very busy! In fact, I haven't had a chance to stitch at all, nor have I had a chance to do much besides work, cook, and take care of the necessities of life.

I miss quiet time spent stitching and of course planning out my project.

I'm posting another flower collage that shows some of the roses that we have in our front yard and backyards. I hope you like it! Two of our rose bushes are at least forty years old, and the other twelve are ones we've planted within the past three years.

Thanks for all your comments and I miss reading all of your blogs. I hope to find some time to read blogs tonight, or tomorrow.

Color My World

It's funny, but one thing that has always made me feel happy is color. Even as a small child, I specifically remember being happy when I looked at colors, and how they looked together. Can you relate at all?

I loved to rearrange my crayons into color families when I was quite small. Color made me HAPPY! I so enjoyed how the colors looked together, and how some of the colors clashed with each other. To me a perfect day was spending time at home, just coloring away to my heart's content.

With my love for color in mind, I threw together some of our yard flower photos and made the collage you see at the top of this post. I love the contrast of the varying hues together. Some of them really don't look so great next to each other, but I'll post the photo here just the same.

Part of my love for needlework is of course based on my love for color. It is so much fun to see all the fiber colors next to each other, and watch a design emerge from all the wonderful colors.

So tell me, does color make you happy? Which colors do you enjoy seeing together?

I've Started My House Sampler

I really shouldn't have started another WIP before finishing a different one, but I couldn't resist!

Yesterday I bought my fabric, and this past week I've been madly plotting out various houses onto graph paper. I've also looked through every issue I have of the old CS and CC magazines, and I've found some great stuff that I can use for this sampler.

Here's another book that I'm using. I'm actually using the house on the cover's sampler, and many of the motifs inside of it. My son bought it for me for my birthday, in fact. It's written by Jane Greenoff.

Here's a photo of my graph paper scratchings. It's very messy and rather random looking, which is just my style of doing something like this. It's also inaccurate at this point as I've lengthened the individual areas for each house from 60 stitches to 80 stitches. (The width was already at 80 squares.) So the center house is actually going to be stitched further down and to the right from how this paper shows it to be.

In the middle of my sampler is a design from an old CS and CC magazine. I'm going to use the two homes, the tree, the birds, and the flowers below the houses. Here's a photo of the finished design as shown in the magazine. Excuse my terrible flash reflections, please!

I had quite a time finding the right colors to use. I couldn't use the ones called for in the original design as the fabric I chose is too dark for them. I spent a lot of time this morning looking at my DMC color card, and going through my boxes and boxes of floss. I wish they were organized better, but what can I say? The DMC color card helped immensely in that I could find colors in the same color family as in the original design.

I managed to start my project, and just did a few stitches on it. I did a bit of the center branches between the two houses as that's the center of the entire design.
Here's my small start along with the floss colors I will use for the tree, flowers, and birds.

I still have to choose colors for the houses as I'm not sure the suggested ones will work with this fabric color. We'll just have to wait and see! For now, it sure is fun to plot out this project and see where it goes. I may end up changing it completely in the end. My way of viewing it is a "planned chaos" sort of way.

Fabric is purchased!

In Stitching News...

I bought my fabric today for my planned Houses Sampler. I decided on 32 count Raw/Natural Belfast Linen, and I bought a 27" square piece of it. I can't wait to get started!
I also have charted out about 1/2 of the area I will stitch, using graph paper. I am talking about the main dwellings only, and will add more details and such as time goes on.

My husband suggested I start my project instead of doing more practical chores. No wonder I love him so much! I haven't yet decided upon all colors and such, but for now I'll go with what's charted on the original designs.


It's off now to whipstitch the outside of the fabric.

Finally, here are our four cats in their most commonly found state. I simply adore how cats look, and I hope you do, too.

24 Years Gone By

In exactly 4 minutes, our daughter will be 24 years old. Where does time go? She's my first born, so that means I've been a mom for 24 years. That's how old I was when I first held her on that October morning so long ago. It was long ago, but yet I can remember it as clear as yesterday's morning.

Thinking of how quickly time flies brings tears to my eyes, actually. Life is so precious and sweet, and it passes so quickly. Before you know it, you're well past being young and approaching the senior discount.

Instead of focusing on that, I want to wish my sweet daughter a very happy birthday. Tonight we'll celebrate by taking her and her new husband to a local Spanish restaurant. The beverages are wonderful there, as are the tapas. In less than two weeks we'll celebrate her birthday with our extended family, too.

Happy Birthday to you, dear daughter. You'll always be our little "Bodie" ~ the one who dances with the unicorns, catches butterflies, and puts baby clothes on our puppy. You taught me how to be patient, and more.