Getting there!

Well, I wasn't going to post until I got farther along, but that's just not going to happen. So here's Lois Minshall as of this minute. I just have to finish the verse in the middle and then do the words at the bottom -- all the words are over one. And yes, I'm doing cross over one for the verse and words.



I really like how it's coming out!





I'll change what is at the bottom of the sampler. I'm taking my inpiration from SamplerLover'sBlog. I am dedicating this sampler to my mother, who died going on 30 years ago. I will put her name at the bottom along with her birth and death dates. It's about time I made a sampler dedicated to her!

In case you're wondering, the verse in the middle is the following:

A Mother's love, how dear the name,
What bliss unfolds its sacred power
Then ever may it's fairest flame,
Illume my every given hour.

On the family front, been busy running the girl child around to visit with friends and to go to the doctor. Always something to do when she's around! As for tomorrow and the boy child, well -- that will have to wait for another post. :D

On a Lois streak

Ok, so I didn't pick up Not For Us Alone like I said I would. My excuse is that I need to find my Autopsy of the Montenegrin Stitch book by Amy Mitten to help me with the next part. I'm on a Lois Minshall streak instead. Here's my progress as of this morning. It's a sunny day for once!




I'm enjoying this one now that I'm on a roll.




Lois is rather tortuous in that she has all these little over one motifs. I can never make over one on 40ct work -- I can only handle over one letters. Anything else, the fabric just bunches and the stitches don't fit. Soooooo, I'm cheating and just doing over one tent instead. Fits a lot better. Hopefully, it doesn't look too terrible.




The girl child is coming home tonight for midterm break from college. It'll be nice to have her home for a week. Although it always means more work, more surprises, and an extra two kids in the house. Two kids, you say? Yes, her boyfriend is a senior in high school. He's always around when she's around. :D I know one thing for sure. The girl child will be needing lots of sleep. She's been pulling lots of all-nighters this week!

Off to start a stew in the slow cooker. Good way to have some dinner ready for someone whose arrival time is in the air. And with the girl child, you never know her plans until the plans are happening! lol!

I heart Ruthie Sundays!

Well another Ruthie Sunday has come and gone. And of course I'm obliged to show pictures of my progress! :D (Once again it is a cloudy and rainy day here, so the pictures are not the brightest. I can never decide if it's better to just take the pictures in the clouds or to use the flash. What do you think?)





I finished a satin stitch row of letters! And then I discovered that the chain row of satin stitches underneath was nice and mindless so I did some of that as well.




Ruthie is such a pretty lady! I'm finding it really enjoyable to have just that one Sunday a week for her -- it seems to work for me very well! There are a few other ladies joining Paulette and me (I?) for this Sunday Ruthie day, so it's nice!

I hope everyone survived turning the clocks ahead. Can't believe we have to wake up in the dark again for a few more weeks. Groan!!!!

What's that sampler in the header picture??

Ok, I've been meaning to mention this. And I've gotten a few questions about it, so I'd better do it now! lol! The sampler I used in my header for this blog. It's beautiful, isn't it? I just love it! So what is it? Here it is in all its glory!




Not a great picture, I know. But you get the idea. The piece is Charlotte Clayton by the Northwest Sampler Guild. It came out last year and as soon as I saw it, I fell in love. You know what I mean. That big THUNK! OMG! moment where you just gasp and can't move your eyes from the picture. :D Yes, this was a big time falling in love. So I immediately bought it, kitted up. And immediately started working on it. And I'm so glad I did. It uses NPI silks, and I can't remember what fabric I used. But luckily, I note down such things in my photobucket album. So I can go take a peek and say, oh yes, I used 40ct Vintage Sand Dune. I don't think that was the fabric called for, but it was recommended by Jean at the Attic, and I love how it came out.

So now you know what that sampler is in my header. I do think it's one of my favorite pieces. The picture on the chart itself is of the original antique piece. It was rather frustrating because I'm one of those people who want my stitching to look exactly like the picture on the chart. And of course, that's impossible when it comes to having the original piece on the chart. The same thing happened with Dutch Beauty, which also has the original piece shown on the chart. But it can be a rewarding experience when you don't know how the piece will look in the end. You end up being surprised and pleased with the colors forming on your fabric. It's like an adventure, charting whole new territories.




So that's the story of my header. Thanks for asking. And thanks for reading my blog and posting your comments. I'm so enjoying meeting so many fellow stitchers out there!

Oh, and a ps. There's also a link to my photobucket album on the sidebar to the right. If you visit my album, I hope you all notice that there are two albums -- if you look carefully, you'll see there's a WIP album as well as the main one. I admit I haven't been putting photos in my WIP section recently. But it's there.

More pictures

Second post today. Glenna asked for pictures of what Lois Minshall and Not for Us Alone look like as finished pieces. Good point, Glenna! Sorry! lol! Here's Lois.



She's charted for AVAS, so mine won't look exactly like this when done. I'm hoping I'll still like it anyway!

Not for Us Alone is a mystery class, so you're not supposed to know what it looks like. It's hard to find pictures online as a result. I hope that Lynn in Utah won't mind if I provide a link to her album. Click on her name for the link. Scroll down in the little side bar area and you'll see Not for Us Alone. Lynn does absolutely amazing work -- I always love to look through her albums!

Stick to the rotation!!

Well, for now I've conquered the startitis that I've been having. I've decided to do a very loose rotation of Ruthie Sundays, and then rotate every week between Not For Us Alone and Lois Minshall. I think. I may throw in a Collaboration Etui Wednesday in there with another online friend. :D




In the meantime, I did manage to finish Chapter Two of Not for Us Alone on Monday.




Don't look too closely at the seed stitch around the shield motif. I messed up a bit. For those of you who think I'm a perfectionist, think again. At least when it comes to ripping out seed stitch. lol!

After I finished that up, I needed some plain cross stitch, so I was good and picked up Lois Minshall again. Here's where I am with her as of today.




(It's another cloudy day today, so the pictures may be a bit dark.) I don't know if I said before, but I'm using 40ct Vintage Light Examplar and an NPI conversion from Jean at the Attic. (No affiliation, etc) With Not for Us Alone, I'm using the kit -- 36ct Zweigart and Amy Mitten's Fibers to Dye For fibers.

I'm glad today's Friday, but totally bummed that we have to turn the clocks ahead this weekend. I think they did the right thing in changing when to turn the clocks back in the fall, but they moved the moving-the-clocks-forward thing to a time of year that's a bit too early IMO. I'm liking how it is right now, sending the boy child out to the bus stop when it's light out as opposed to pitch dark or just starting to get light. Next week it'll be back to sending him out when it's just getting light again. And waking up in the dark. Bleagh!! The only good thing will be not having to drive in the dark to and from evening activities. Anyone who knows me knows I hate driving in the dark!

Well, TGIF anyway! Have a good weekend, everyone! And thanks for following my blog and posting comments!

Stitching Saturday, Ruthie Sunday -- and rotation??

Saturday I got together with some of my stitching friends at my friend Kathy's house for a stitching day. The big debate, of course, was what to work on. I figured I wouldn't be able to concentrate on Not for Us Alone (see post below), so I brought the project I'd put aside for it, Lois Minshall. It was nice to do plain x's again! This is how Lois looks as of Saturday. Sorry for the darkness of the pictures -- it's a snowy day here with no sun.



I worked on the first flower in the interior -- nice to be done with that border! (There's still a bit more light pink to be added to the flower and left hand rose bud.)




Sunday was Ruthie Sunday. Those of you who read Paulette Stewart's blog (Plum Street Samplers) know that she and I started Ruth Bacheler from the Scarlet Letter together. We dedicate our Sundays -- or Mondays if Sundays are busy -- to the pretty girl. Well, yesterday we reached a milestone -- we started the letters! Yay!



We both quickly discovered that since each letter was a different color from the letter next to it, that it would be slow going with a start and stop for every letter. Yawn! By the end of the day, I had gotten almost to the end of the first row of letters.



Ruthie is pretty, but I have the feeling that these letters -- and there are tons of them! -- are going to be a trial! lol!

So I seem to be doing a vague rotation. I usually hate rotations. I find I do much better with a one-at-a-time sort of thing. But the Not For Us Alone class started online and I obviously wasn't finished with Lois Minshall. And I figured I could manage a Sunday for Ruthie. So rotation it is. I guess. Sort of. The worst of it is, since I've been talking to friends, both online and off, I'm so tempted by all these other pieces I want to do! It's taking all the will power I have not to dash off and start CHS's Adam and Eve.



There are a bunch of ladies starting an SAL for that one. I look at it and think, oh that'll work up in a snap! No time at all! Then I look at it realistically and laugh at my optimism. And that's just one piece that I want to start right now! There are so many others! Oh why can't I stitch faster? Why can't I not get distracted by everything I want to stitch and just be happy stitching what I'm stitching -- which, of course, was the something I really wanted to stitch before I started stitching it! lol!

So that's where I am this morning. Debating what to pick up to work on next. Be good and continue with Not for Us Alone? Be wicked and start one of those pieces that's calling to me? Be somewhat good and continue on Lois Minshall? Sigh. I'm in one of those flighty moods.

Thanks for all your comments. They mean a lot to me! Mouline Rouge will be lurking in the background --- still haven't decided which color scheme to use, but I have a feeling when I do pick it up again, I'll try out the newest combination. I want a masterpiece like Paulette's!

Snow day today. No school! Hubby working from home -- I'm always glad that's an option with these computer types. Everyone home warm and snug -- I hope that means some stitching time!