All of my Grandparents passed through Ellis Island and came to this great land of freedom and opportunity. My Grandmother came from Glasgow Scotland a long, long time ago. She was very proud of her Scots heritage as I am. My mother told me that she often spoke of William Wallace and how proud the Scots were of that brave and determined man. She also loved music.....lots of different kinds of music. I remember when I was 5 and would go spend a week with my Grandparents....she would play opera music.....which I wasn't too fond of at 5 years of age.....and then she would put on the records of the bagpipes......now THAT kind of music I learn to love. I still get a shiver up my spine when I hear a bagpipe.......and it takes me right back to my childhood and spending time with my Grandmother. The first song I remember was Scotland the Brave......and still my favorite to hear on the bagpipes.
I want to design a series of samplers as a tribute to Mary Campbell. This first sampler is "My Teacher". In future samplers I will incorporate a stone house as so many of the Scots samplers have.....and I think I will do that sampler in reds, green and gold as a Tartan cloth might be. I have a lot of ideas for motifs and border elements......and I am lucky that we have such a vast supply of materials to design with.....elements that were in short supply many years ago when our ancestors were designing samplers.
I will be sending this sampler design off to the model stitcher in Alaska today and then I will start on another tribute sampler. I have a lot of plans for this year....a lot of designs I hope to put to paper and have them stitched. I hope to find some time to do some of the stitching.....by the time I am done with a pattern I am starting on another one and they get very time consuming to say the least. Add dyeing a few hundred thousand yards of floss, counting and putting it on the cards.........and you can imagine how busy I am.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Memorial Day. We have so many brave people that have fought for this country, my husband included. He served 31 years in the Army as a Colonel and received several medals in Vietnam when he was injured while saving his men. My grandsons are the first to thank him for serving his country. Those young men make me proud!
Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for stopping by.
Nancy
I already have several requests to do a give-away for some of the new 1840 Sampler Floss line. I have 26 colors to choose from (I will be adding colors as I get them dyed).
I had to laugh....I was sorting floss this week and putting bundles on the dining room table. The "husband" walks in and says what's for dinner.....floss?
Men.........
So lets give away some floss! Lets give 5 stitchers their choice of 5 colors, 5 of my 20 yards skeins...that's 100 yards each to do lots of stitching.
Rules: You must be a follower. You must post a comment here.
Post on your blog or facebook, etc, and get 25 more entries. Yes I do check to see where you post it.
Drawing to be June 15th. Lots of time to enter and I will have more colors to choose from by then. I list colors separately in my ebay store as I finish them and I will also be selling them in sets.
Good luck stitchers!
Nancy
The Charm of Friendship (in reds) is finished. I just received it in the mail and I am very pleased with Teresa's work. Beautiful stitching. I still have several models out there being stitched and a couple that had to be started over when stitchers quit on their projects.
The finished size on this is 14 x 16" on 32 ct linen.
My dark champagne linen doesn't show the shade as well as I would like in this photo. I always have trouble with linen as it doesn't photograph like the true shade it is. I have seen other stitchers comment that they have the same problem. Any suggestions? Flash and outdoor pictures are too bright and show it lighter...this is photographed just inside the door with bright light coming in. Under lamps shows too dark......
Anyways......back to a new pattern and I will start dyeing more floss tomorrow as the rain has finally stopped and it will be a good day to dry the floss outside.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!
Nancy
Busy once again.....that's nothing new....I have 26 colors put on cards for the 1840 Sampler Floss line. Lots of subtle variegation in most of them. A couple friends asked me to keep some of the soft antique colors without a lot of variegation. I didn't do drastic variegation in these new colors. Nice antique-looking color changes are what I strived for.
I did reds with light to dark and brownish tones added on some, same to the plum colors. Greens run from dark with darker green, celery with several shades, sage(some with golden highlights), aqua, midnight dark blues....nutmeg, buttercream, etc. These will be available in my ebay store tomorrow. I have to finish putting the names on the tags.
I hope you can see the nice color changes in these photos. I do plan on getting a new camera soon. I just can't capture the true colors in my photos. Especially on linen....those colors are always hard to capture.
It is raining today so I am taking a break from dyeing floss. When it clears later this week I will be back to the dye pot as I want to add quite a few more colors to the line.
Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!
Nancy
I had a very busy and productive week around here....lot of floss dyed and a new sampler pattern finished. The Gift of Wisdom.
It reads:
One thing I ask and wilt thou hear
And grant my soul a gift so dear
Wisdom descending from above
The choicest token of thy love
Another small sampler; when finished it measures 11x11" on 32ct linen. I will be sending this out to a model stitcher tomorrow and then finish another similar size pattern I am working on.
I hope all of you are having a wonderful Mother's day. I have all my guys here for the weekend and it doesn't get any better than being spoiled! Of course I do tend to spoil them all year long.......
Thanks for stopping by.
Nancy
I hope all of you have a Happy Mother's Day. For some it may be fond memories......cherished moments that stay with us.
I am blessed in so many ways. My Mother is a very special woman and I love her dearly. At 91 she still takes care of my sister who is 51 and has Downs Syndrome. This woman is a saint and will get a special place in heaven.
My son is the other joy in my life.....he is always buying me the newest supplements with the hope that it will help this Lupus and horrible arthritis I have. For this Mother's Day he said he had heard of a new treatment center.....he wants me to try it....and if my insurance doesn't cover it he will cash in his retirement account to pay for it. Of course I would never let him do that.....but this loving and caring son has always been there for me. Constantly buying me gadgets that help me open things easily so my sore hands don't hurt so much. I just couldn't ask for more. I am blessed!
So tomorrow I have many things to be thankful for and I will spend some quality time with my guys....my son and my two grandsons.
I hope all of you have a wonderful day!
Nancy
I have been busy with the dye pot today.....45,000 yards of floss dyed for the new 1840 Sampler Collection. That's 20 new colors that I will start showing next week. I hope to dye more floss tomorrow as the warm weather has arrived and perfect for drying floss outside.
I am adding this new collection because most of the colors will have a lot more variegation than the 1795 Sampler Floss Collection. I have had a few requests and I think these colors will work perfect. Still the nice antique looking colors but with added variegation with tone on tone darker coloration and the addition of another color. Hard to describe so I guess you will just have to wait and see some of these. And after I get 50 colors dyed I will have a give-away to share some with you!
I am hoping to do 100 colors to this limited edition set....we will see. They will be sold separately and in a large set.
Meanwhile....I am still whittling away at sampler patterns. Time is going to get tight around here when I start doing the floss on cards but I just don't have anyone that lives close to me to hire. My grandsons aren't thrilled with doing floss but do help me at times. They run the winder to unwind the large cones of floss for me and wind chenille on cards and that is a big help.
The vegetable garden is also planted so I am ready to go put my feet up for a bit!
I hope all of you are enjoying nice spring weather after the long cold winter we had.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.
Nancy
Another mini sampler is finished. This one measures 6-1/2 x 9" on 32ct linen.
I will be sending another pattern to Rita as she is game to stitch another! Which pleases me to no end.....she did a beautiful job and I appreciate it very much.
I am working on another sampler pattern but am also doing the necessary yard work that comes with spring......and I want to start dyeing floss later this week. Nice antique colors, soft and muted....with splashes of a second color in them for variegation. I will show you some samples when they are finished. For now.....it's back to the garden!
Thanks for stopping by.
Nancy
