One of those you enjoy working on so much, you almost hate to be done with it!
I had to change the wording along the bottom....my whole name didn't work with the way it was charted, (her sampler, finished in ****), so what you see is my version ;-)
I will miss working on it, but it's headed to the framers soon, so we can enjoy looking at it on the wall :)
Mary Beale, her very ownself, recommended not filling in around the verse, so that's how I left it :)
"Mary Beale, Her Sampler" Designed by Mary Beale from the Pocketbook Needlework series, 1998 editionavailable from Mary's online shop (click on link to go there) Stitched on 40 count Park City Blend by R&R over 2 with one strand DMC thread
Thank you all for visiting my blog and always saying such nice things. The stitching and blogging community is so wonderful...I'm very grateful to be a part of it.
Have a wonderful week ahead and stitch much!
xox
Apologies in advance for these horrible pictures. I've been fighting a cold bug for weeks and it finally hit pretty hard the past few days, so everything I try to do just turns out cruddy!
I recently sent a few things to Tobie for finishing, she makes awesome pillows and other things. Got two of them back today...
Here's Jingles & Jack (design by Becky's Boos)...
and the Daisy Sampler (design by Little House Needleworks)....
Also, I recently stitched up this little freebie from Shepherd's Bush, called Halloween Grins...
Stitched once for my hubby, as he picked it out when he was with me at the LNS last fall. The Frankenstein one is his. Then stitched again for my daughters, the grinning kitty. They are in some tuckable hanging banners that Tobie made for me a few years back. Can't remember what they were originally for, but these fit perfectly. My original plan was to make these into little hanging ornaments, but I feel too shaky to even attempt that, so here they go. I may need to spruce up the banners a little...when I feel better...maybe some cute buttons in the corners.
Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. The random generator thing was done and the winners are Tracey for Lot A, and Deborah for Lot B. Congratulations ladies, I will be emailing you soon for your mailing info...or if you see this first, please go ahead and email me with it :)
Back to my Mary sampler...which I've managed to work on in-between my Nyquil shots, lol! She's almost done :)
Just couldn't stand it any longer! Seeing all of the fall finishes on the blogs has put me in the mood! So I took a little break from my Mary sampler to stitch this up for a friend!
Design by Lizzie Kate - Autumn Things #125 stitched on 28 ct. Country French Latte linen with WDW (I left off the square border and put the acorn button in a different spot than shown on the cover of the chart). premade acorn banner from Stitch-A-Gift
Hope she likes it! Now, one more fall stitch to complete and then back to the Mary Beale sampler, which is almost done!
Hello again! How are you this week? So far things are just peachy here at Cone Headquarters. Mr. Muttley had a checkup on Tuesday and all is going well. So far. One more week to go, then another recheck and hopefully the stitches can come out and the eye will be ok. The vet did say if she thinks it needs another week under the patch, she'll sew it back up. Oh boy! Astro is still not happy about the cone, and steers a w i d e path around it, even though I think in his heart, he'd like to play. Muttley says he's tired of feeling like a reject!
Meanwhile, I'm clearing out my stash and wanted to share some goodies with my faithful readers in the process. There will be two winners, one for "lot A" as seen here:
The contents will include: Little House Needleworks Acorns & Pines, with the fabric Lizzie Kate Snippet - Wanted! with fabric and buttons Heart in Hand Grand Old Flag & Lizzie Kate Fall Crazy #131
And another winner for "lot B" as pictured below:
which will include:
Whitman's Tin Sewing Set chart and Whitman's tin BrightNeedle Can You Spy? with fabric and Anchor threads called for Threads of Gold Heart to Heart (Christmas ornament) Homespun Elegance Tiny Stuff Noel Noah Pin/Ornament with fabric and embellishment.
If you'd like a chance to win, please let me know in the comments below this post. I will draw two names next Thursday, Sept. 23. Be sure to let me know which group you'd like, should you win!
Hello my dear and faithful readers! I've thought about you often and wanted to write. Really, I did! But I couldn't think of anything to say and since I'm just working on one project right now, wanted to be further along before posting pictures of it. But time sure is flying, and here we are, in September already, so here's where I am on the Mary Beale sampler (that I still don't know the name of!)
It's kind of big and hard to get a good picture of, so the photo above isn't the best.
But look at this little butterfly, I love it...
and the verse, that I also love. It's just outlined by the green border right now, the chart says to fill in the whole verse area with the same color...but I'm thinking I won't. What do you think?
As there is so much solid stitching around the rest of the sampler...
more grass will fill this area below this blank space (which will have a little couple sitting at a table under some grapevines...
anyway, that's as far as I've gotten on it so far. Almost there!
Some of you that are my Facebook friends will already know about my pug problem, but for those that aren't, here's the problem....Muttley...Munny Pie...Mutt Lee...
It all started when his eyes started looking funny. Cloudy, etc. One eye worse than the other. We took him in to our vet, she did a dye test, which showed a corneal scratch on one eye, and corneal swelling on the other, both due to "injuries" of some sort. All we could figure is, because he's so WILD, he ran into something and scratched it. He loves to bury his face in the carpet or in blankets. So anyway, she prescribes drops, antibiotics and said to come back in a week. TWO DAYS later, the one eye with the scratch turns into the ulcer you see above. How lucky for us it was the holiday weekend, so no going back to the vet until Tuesday, and trust me when I say, it got uglier before Tues. Let me tell you, I pretty much went off the deep end, picturing this little (well, not so little, but you know what I mean), two year old pug, going blind! We've had a bunny rabbit lose an eye, even with excellent specialized medical care, so I knew what it looked like.
But, we made it to Tuesday, took him back in first thing in the morning and now we have this...
The vet made a "patch" over the ulcer, using his extra eye-lid flap, or whatever it's called. It should help speed the healing. It looks seriously gross. He's soooo happy {snort}. It has to stay this way for two weeks, and considering he's WILD, the Cone of Shame must be worn for that amount of time as well, until the stitches come out.
You may notice, the cone is already dented...
He's since figured out that this "Cone of Shame" can be used to his advantage...
*Mom holds his bone for him, so he can get his daily chew on (he chews a LOT on a regular basis, it's his therapy).
*He can terrorize Astro relentlessly (because Astro is terrified of the cone coming at him)
*He can lick food, water and whatever else might get into the cone at his leisure.
*Everyone feels sorry for him when he moans for one solid minute while laying on the couch, so he gets extra treats, rubbin' and kisses.
*If he plants his face straight down on the floor, the cone spreads out and he can pick up miscellaneous crap off said floor.
*He can clear a path really quickly because the humans and other living creatures in the house have figured out that the cone HURTS like h*ll when rammed into their legs, so they get out of the way, and fast!
I'm sure there are other advantages to the cone, but he's only on the first 24 hours, so give him time. Meanwhile, his parents continue to pray really hard that the #1 advantage to all this will be that his eye heals up and when it's opened back up, that ulcer will be much better.
And rain? Yes, lots of it, which normally I love. Except when there's a MONSOON and you're trying to walk doggies with cones on their heads and they are freaking out cause they've never heard all that NOISE before, all around their heads, while they need to peepee reaaaaaaally badly. They hate even getting their feet wet anyway, geesh! (You doggie owners out there know exactly what I'm talking about....don't ya?) I've never been so completely drenched in all of my life, but at least he went potty finally :-)
:::::sigh:::::
Life is good, even when it's nuts! I'm so happy it's the beginning of fall. So happy in fact, that I'm going to have a Fall giveaway very soon, so stay tuned for that. It will be for my loyal blog followers and regular commenting friends only :)
Stay safe! Stay dry! Be happy!
PS. For those that haven't seen the movie UP (such a great movie)...here's a clip about the Cone of Shame:
This post will be all over the place, so consider yourself warned! I guess it's the unbearable heat...maybe other things going on in my life...not sure, but it's very hard for me to focus on anything lately. I've been in a funk, stitching and otherwise....so first, some stitching, which is probably what you came for, right?
In July, still in the patriotic mood, I started on this Blackbird Designs piece, called Summer Souvenir (which is NOT in the book by the same name, so dontcha go looking for it, like I did, or you'll end up scratching your head in wonder...it's in the Tokens of Friendship book).
Then, the heat started getting to me and I started thinking about fall, which led to this finish:
Jingles & Jack from Becky's Boos...stitched on 10 count hand dyed something or other with WDW #5 perle cotton thread. A fast and fun stitch. Be warned...if you stitch it, you will need at least three skeins of the Onyx (the chart only calls for one. I didn't even cross my stitches as I went along, like one normally does with overdyed floss....and I still came pretty close to the end on some of the skeins....
after that, I picked up an old WIP, Be Kind, Be True, another Blackbird Designs:
That was about the third time I've tried working on it, and just can't get into it. Not sure if it's the fabric (35 ct. Marva's Breakfast Blend)...but it always ends up frustrating me so it gets but away. Siobhan gave me the chart a long time ago, because I'd fallen in love with it when seeing her finish, I really do love the design so much....sigh....
My next attempt was the Adam & Eve sampler by The Goode Huswife....meh....
love the fabric, design, etc. but it just caused my shoulder and hand some grief, as it's 40 ct. and sometimes I struggle with that now (which is sad, cause it's always been my favorite)....heavy sigh....
So finally, the past couple of weeks, I've been able to focus on this Mary Beale sampler...just the top left corner flower was done on it when I'd tossed it aside a few years ago, and this is how far along I am on it now (almost halfway)....
I'm a little reluctant to post this when it's finished, as it came from one of her newsletters way back when, only subscribers could get it I think...what were those called? Pocketbook Needlework, something like that? There were several designs in each issue and this one came in installments, over four newsletters? Not sure. A friend gave me the charts when she was done stitching hers. I'm not sure which edition it was in, so maybe I won't post it when it's done since I know so little about it. I get emails all the time about things I've posted here, that are out of print, and I just don't know enough about it to be of any help to anyone. Maybe someone else knows and can fill me in.
Anyway, I love it, and am happy that I've been able to stick with it for so long. So far. LOL. Every time I say "so far" at the end of a sentence like that, I think of a line out of my all time favorite movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"...where Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney are trying to fly and land a plane they get stuck in after the pilot (played by Jim Backus) gets knocked out ("what could happen to an Old Fashion" lol)...they are talking to an air traffic control guy and they're pretty much freaking out and the control officer is trying to calm them down...he's on the radio with them and says "I want to congratulate you men on doing such a great job. So far." Cracks me up every time...because, you know. They're in the air after all and still need to land the plane ;) My hubby and I quote so many lines out of that movie (along with Planes, Trains and Automobiles; The Great Race; The Money Pit...) Pretty silly, huh? :-)
**edited personal details out 08/11/10...thank you SO much to everyone who reached out to me, either in the comments or through emails. You all helped me so much, more than you can know, and I'm forever grateful for your friendships! I have also closed and hidden comments for this post. They are still there, but only I can read them, and I cherish each one. Again, thank you so much!**
It is so dang hot here today...hubby was helping me move some of these things out into the sun room so I could get pics, and about halfway through, about to faint, we gave up! So while this is not all of the rest of my patriotic stitching, it is a little more, for your viewing pleasure ;-)
as you can see, a lot of it is not "finished"...need to work on that!
On the left, in the back, is Lizzie Kate's Land I Love, and all the rest are from Bent Creek kits, except for the bottom left one, which is from Chessie & Me and is called Love Liberty.
All of the links I've posted are just convenient ones I found online, for easy reference, I am not affiliated with any one of them, or promoting their website :)
Thanks for visiting. I appreciate each and every one of you, especially the sweetie-pies that leave comments ;-)
I leave you today with some fat pug legs, these belonging to Muttley...
Had a couple of patriotic finishes to share with my faithful readers, way before a few days before the start of July, but life went a little haywire and messed with my blogging plans.
That's life!
Well, here's one from Little House Needleworks....
and from Heart in Hand....
Anyway, hubby had an accident at work and long story short, he dislocated his shoulder and bruised a couple of ribs, but he's OK and will go back to work in another week or so, after being HOME for three (count them...t h r e e )weeks. I loves me some hubbies, but when they come into the bathroom to watch you pee, they have to go. There's only so much one can deal with. Seriously, I'm happy it wasn't much worse...in fact the doctor told him that most men his age (like he's 90 or something, ha, he's only in his early fifties) would have needed surgery, but hubby is healing nicely and for that I'm very thankful.
and Muttley is also very thankful for some quality Dad time
All of this happened during the big birthday week, so the birthdays were a little subdued this year, as he was in a lot of pain those days. I think we'll celebrate this next week by going to see Toy Story 3 and my plans are to put so much butter on my popcorn that I will just slide right out of my seat when it's all over! Yay!
Here's a picture of the birthday girls, lo, all those years ago....(22 to be exact). She was brand new and at 24, I pretty much was too, lol!
weird look on my face, huh? Probably just tired. Babies are exhausting.
Here are some random pictures of some patriotic things I have gathered from around the house...
please excuse dust and pug hairs as I'm just not a good housekeeper, let's be honest here. There are lots of framed patriotic pieces around too...someday I'll gather those up, knock off the dust and take pictures...bet y'all can hardly wait ;-)
**edited to add some designer info, to the best of my recollection :)** (in the picture above, from upper left to right: the large flag with acorn wreath is from the Blackbird Designs Fine Collection book, and is called July Celebration; the America Fob (only bottom half shown) is from Shepherd's Bush; the May You Be Blessed ornament is from the Blue Ribbon Designs Patriotic Wishes Volume 1 leaflet, it was a gift from a friend; the tall skinny flag with America under it was a kit from Twisted Threads; the lady holding the flag, dated 2003 in big letters is called Liberty House & is from Ewe & Eye & Friends; the little pudgie guy holding a flag is called Glory Fob from Shepherd's Bush as is the Oh Say sheep and the little mattress pincushion in front of it, from a kit called Tiny Flag ; Pray for Peace is from Birds of a Feather. Hope this helps! Any questions, just shoot me an email!)
Hope everyone had a happy 4th and are heading into summer by having fun and staying cool in this heat. It's just unbearably hot all over the country...our first electric bill for the summer was double what it was this time last year! I'm not complaining, a/c is a Godsend, whatever the cost...don't you think?
This finish has been a WIP for oh, about seven years. I've posted about it before, my plans were to try and finish it up back then, but it never happened. Oh well, better late than never.
I started on this when the design was first published, in the August 2003 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. Can't remember if this is 35 or 40 count fabric, but it is the 18th Century Blackbird linen from R&R, and stitched over 2 with one strand Gentle Art Sampler Threads.
The design is called Summer Jubilee in the magazine. It was published again later in their book "Souvenirs of Summer", not sure if it's called by the same name in that book. Anyway, now that it's finished, I love it!
Am I the only person having issues with Blogger and their new improved stuff? OY! I can't get this text aligned right, no matter how many times I push the button, it's driving me MAD!! HELP!
Well, anyway, here's the stashing part...my order from Pineberry Lane
Some charts I've wanted for a while, some scissors, bobbins, fabric, and rusty jingle bells.
I love all of it, although I'm not too sure what to do with the bobbins, they're bigger than I expected :-)
I think they can be used for the bases of pincushions or "make do's". Hmm....
It is SO hot here! Even indoors, taking pictures for this blog, I broke out in perspiration! Summer is just not my favorite time of year, although, we do have the big birthday week coming up in our family, first my daughter has hers on the 30th, mine on the 1st and they're always followed up by the fireworks on the 4th, so that part of summer is usually fun :-) After that, it's just a countdown until Autumn!
Just a fly-by post so no one thinks I'm dead or anything. Although, I am wilting at an alarming pace with the hot weather we've had. The picture above was taken from our seat at the coffee shop downtown the other day when Patti and I had a little visit. I thought that bike was pretty cool!
Not much stitching to report. Shoulder and hand pain, along with other things have left me with nothing good to show. I'd like to say thanks for everyone that visited from Terri's blog (when she had the giveaway) and left such nice comments. Y'all are sweet. And Terri's a doll, isn't she? I gained some new followers (and lost a few after she had the drawing, lol), and promise to be back soon with some stitchy goodness to share.
Take care, happy weekend (and summer, even if it hasn't officially started yet ;-) )
