Framed Sampler!

Life has gotten extremely busy. After a fairly lazy summer, I'm preparing for another school year. I had to move to a different classroom this year, so it has meant a bit more work in getting ready. School does not start for a few weeks yet, but there is much to do before it can be a smooth start.

On a happy note, I got my sampler back from the framer! I took it to my most local needlework shop, and I am so thrilled with the results. I chose to not mat the piece, and I also chose a wood color that was a bit lighter than I'd anticipated but seemed to go best with the tones of the piece.

Here it is:



A close-up of one side:



I hung it on the wall between or kitchen and family room, and it seems to look all right there.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Finis...Finished...I'm Finally Done!

I started my House and Garden Sampler around October 7, 2007. I'm finally done! I just added a few more flowers and birds tonight. This week I will take it to be framed at my not-so-local needlework store.

What a fun project this has been. I will now go back to working on Summer Queen. I don't have much left to do on her, so that will be a finish in the near future.

Thanks for your encouragement in completing this project. It's been really exciting watching it come together. I am not quite happy with it, but then again I am a complete perfectionist when it comes to this sort of thing so that's not surprising.

Here are the last flowers I added tonight:


Here's a photo of my 'plan', as it looked today:

Yes, that's about six 8 X 11 graph paper sheets haphazardly taped together, and not very well, either.

Finally, the finished sampler:



I'm going to miss this project. I feel that way after completing all large projects, and large projects are what I mostly do.

Thanks for stopping by today, and thanks for all your comments and encouragement.

May

I'm so glad it's May. That means June is not far off, and soon it will be summer.

I am almost done with the House and Garden Sampler. Here are the latest progress pictures. (I haven't done any stitching in two weeks, but hope to finish it this weekend.)







I'm going to add a few more flowers, a few more flying birds, and then I will be done!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Easter & Sampler Update

I want to wish everyone who celebrates Easter a happy one! There will be 14 or so of us for brunch here tomorrow, so we've been busy getting ready for that.

Above are some roses from our yard that I've put in vases for tomorrow. I'm so grateful that we have roses now. We planted most of them four years ago, I believe, and they're really doing well now. The red one is called Chrysler Imperial, and I love its brilliance of color. The red and white pedals at the base are from a rose called Scentimental, and the yellow/pink/white variegated one is Cabana. Also in the mix of roses is Tournament of Roses, Oregon Gold, and Perfume Delight.
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I finished the grass area under the lower right hand corner's house. Here it is:

 

I then added an alphabet from a sampler book I purchased on clearance at a general bookstore. After a bit of thought, I decided upon a deep reddish color for the alphabet. I improvised on the flowers near the alphabet, and I like how they turned out, I think.



I placed some people near the center home, along with the same improvised flowers:


Here's a peek at the whole thing now:


I need to finish the border, and add a few more touches here and there. Then it's off to be framed at some point.

Thanks for stopping by today, and Happy Easter to you. Thanks for all your kind comments and encouragement regarding this sampler! Your words mean so much to me.

Sampler Progress

Here's a bit of progress on the sampler:


I added some details under this house:



Then a few flowers were added under another house:



I added a few golden flowers under a different house,and am in the process of adding grass, too:



A few more views of it:





Now I need to figure out what else to add to this piece. I have charted out some words, but not sure if I like how they look or not. We'll have to wait and see.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Update on Sampler

This sampler is slowly but surely getting completed!

Ten months ago, I added my version of our little home we live in. Here's a photo of the house when I first stitched it:



This past week I added elements around the house. As you will be able to see, our yard doesn't actually include all of these cute elements, but it's fun to pretend, isn't it? We live in the middle of a large city, so we don't have sheep in our yard, nor do we have a duck swimming in a pond. Haven't seen any rabbits around here, either.

I have thought of adding half stitches for the grass, but just can't do it yet. I'm not sure that it needs the half stitches anyway. Here it is:



I finished the garden around the Tudor style home.







I took some of the garden elements from this piece that I stitched years ago. I did vary the colors and more to fit the area.



Finally, a view of the whole piece as it looks now. You can get a better view by clicking on it, and viewing it on Flickr:


Now I need to figure out what to add to some blank areas. I think it's becoming more of a 'spot motif' sampler than a House and Garden one, but that's okay with me. It's really been fun working on the sampler, and watching it come together bit by bit.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Sampler Update!

Here are the latest progress photos on my House and Garden Sampler. There is something about the sampler that bothers me, but I am not yet sure what it is. I guess it's my old critical eye.

Here it is, the last time I shared it here:



Here's how it looks now. I finished the bird, added a rose in the upper left corner, and have half the garden around the top left house completed:









Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy News & Sampler Update

First of all, on a very happy note, my niece Windy's baby came home from the hospital last evening! He is just about 10 weeks old now, and he weighs over 8 pounds. He was born 10 weeks early, and only weighed barely 3 pounds when he was born. My niece was admitted to the hospital at the end of November with premature labor, so his homecoming has been a long time coming. Later on this week we'll go visit them and I'll share a photo here. Here's her blog for some photos of him taken a few weeks ago: Windy's Blog


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I finally have some stitching progress to share!

Here's the sampler last time I showed an update here:


I finished the flower in the righthand corner, and have started adding a Berlinwork bird in the lower left corner.

Here it is now:

A few close-ups of the corners:





I'm going to add a few more of these Berlinwork designs in other parts of the sampler. I'm still not sure what to add to the border, but I'm toying with a few ideas. We will have to wait and see.

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Finally, here's some photos my husband took this morning of our dog Eddie and our polydactyl cat Bruce. I love Saturdays! Bruce and Eddie simply placed themselves in this way, so of course we had to grab the camera and capture it! I love how Bruce is resting on Eddie's large greyhound paws.







Thanks for stopping by today.

An Update on the House and Garden Sampler

I finally had the chance to stitch a bit this past weekend, and here is a photo of the finished apple tree:

 

I used a blended needle for the greens of the tree, and for the apples I used a variegated thread where I used two threads that started at the opposite end of that particular variegated thread's color.

After I finished the tree last night, I had to decide what to add next to the sampler. I decided upon a pattern from this book by Jane Greenoff~

 

I have always loved the look of Berlin work, so I chose a poppy motif from this pattern~

 

I decided to place it in the lower right corner, just as it is in the pattern.

While I was out today, I decided to purchase a magnifier for my Ott Lite. I am not sure if I like using it or not. Do any of you have any sort of recommendation for lighting? I always said that I would quit stitching when I required special equipment just to see the work. Well that was said when I was 20, so of course I knew nothing about how my love of stitching would grow throughout my lifetime.

Here's the work through the new magnifier~

 

Here's a photo of the work I've added in the lower right hand corner, as well as a photo of the whole piece so far:

 

 

The weather was cold and rainy today, which to me makes it ideal stitching weather. On top of that, I had the day off. It was great to stitch, sip some coffee, and relax a little bit.

Thanks for stopping by today, and please let me know what you do to handle seeing the work well enough when you stitch.