Friday, June 29, 2012

Sarah's tree is finished!

Why is it trees always look so simple, but take so long to stitch?
This one is filled with some very colorful critters! First I though they were all birds, but now I think that yellow one might be a 3-legged cat. I guess that is better than a 3-legged bird?!?
I am not sure about the purple one at the top either.

I also finished the little basket on the right. The bottom is cross stitch, but the top is done in an eyelet stitch.

I also finished her roof with the chimneys.

The verse is hard to read here. It goes:

Sarah Whiteley Is My Name And With
My hand I Work The Same I Have
Done This To Let You See What Care
My Parents Takes of Me But When
I Ham Dead And In My Grave I Hope
You Will This favourit Save

Well, that's all I have for now. We will probably have a quiet weekend and holiday. I don't like to drive anywhere on these holiday weekends. I just can't stand sitting in traffic anymore!
Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June TUSAL and more Sarah

June is almost gone! Time is just zooming by. The 4th will be here before we know it!
Here is my TUSAL:


Lots of light blue in the jar here from the verse on Sarah.

Click to enlarge

Hard to read the verse here because it is so light. I have one more line of it to finish, then on to finish her signature line above the crown. The top and bottom of this sampler are so different. The top is rather traditional and formal, but the bottom part, below the crown is much more random.
I am happy with the progress on this one. It seems to be moving along alright.

Looks like we are in for a couple of hot days here. Hope everyone is able to keep cool!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

L'Automne est finis!

Finally! Yeah!

I have to say that I found this very difficult. I'm sure that part of it was that I stitched it one over one, but the design itself was very curvy with the winding vines, etc. I do not think I have ever made so many mistakes on a design, at least not in recent history.
There was a lot of improvising going on here, especially towards the end.

Here she is. Sorry about the crooked picture.

L'Automne - Birds of a Feather
Stitched 1 over 1, using DMC threads on 28ct natural linen

Since we have been immersed lately in all things chicken, I couldn't help but be drawn to The Sarah Whiteley Sampler. I love the crazy looking chickens in it!

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler -Reproduction of an 1823 sampler

This is an oldie from 1985, from Susan L Coyle of Creative Designers.

I made a start.

There is something amiss here though. I started in the center the way I always do, and then moved to the left side, and up to the top. I was really surprised to find how much fabric I had at the top. Gives you a very uneasy feeling that there won't be enough on the bottom. There is also more on the left margin than there should be. I have measured this so many times. Mathematically, it seems to be reasonably correct, but my sense is that something is wrong. I am also wondering if the stated finished size is correct. Hmmm! I was thinking of re-doing it, but I would really hate to do that. Aggravating!

The chickens are keeping us in stitches! They are such funny little things! They seem to double in size in front of our eyes. When they were little, I would feed them the small bits from the bottom of the popcorn bag. The mere crinkle of the bag sent them into a frenzy! I created a monster, or monsters I should say. Now they come to my door to beg for popcorn, the silly things! I had no idea that chickens could interact so much with people. I'm afraid they have become unintended pets!
Chickens calling!