Monday, December 31, 2012

Reflections and Looking Ahead to 2013!

It is hard to believe that 2012 is nearly over!  In fact, for some of you 2013 has already begun.  Happy New Year!


As the year draws to an end, it is a good time to reflect on the past year.  I got the idea from Cathy at With Needle and Thread  to read all of my own blog posts for this year.  What a fun time that was!  I so enjoyed looking at the photos of completed With My Needle projects that some of you have sent me.  I'm always inspired by your work and words.  Thank you!

I also enjoyed seeing photos from some of my classes and the places I've been fortunate to visit this past year. What a wonderful year it has been!

Beside items relating to my business, my blog sometimes has family photos, and it was fun to see those again. My how Haiden and Garrett have grown!

This past year I did quite a bit of "recreational" stitching.  I was surprised to see all the samplers I completed!  (Larger photos of each can be found on previous blog posts.)



Besides those samplers, I created a few With My Needle projects.  In light of the rough year we had in 2011, I had a hard time getting back into a "designing frame of mind".  Early in 2012, I published A Quaker Needlework Box and Hannah Cummins, 1828.  I also premiered a new teaching piece, A Lady's Worke Box.  In another month or two I will have two Mini-Quaker Samplings and a new original design sampler (not named yet) ready to be shipped to the shops.  I hope in 2013 to really get back into the swing of things
 and design more projects.

As the year draws to an end, it is also time to look ahead.  I typically make stitching "goals", but I just discovered that I never made any for 2012.  My goal for 2013 is to design more With My Needle projects and also participate in three (yes, I can't believe I'm goon to do that) sampler SALs--the Anne Maria Clarke sampler (The Essamplaire) with my internet newsletter group, Ann Hair (The Scarlet Letter) as part of Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year, and Sarah E. Pope (Sheepish Designs) with a good friend.  I've already started on the Ann Hair and Sarah E. Pope samplers, but am saving the Anne Maria Clarke sampler for a New Years Day start.

Wishing you a wonderful start to the new year with lots of time for stitching!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Another Day of Celebrating!

Yes, we're still celebrating here in Cincinnati.  Today is our 42nd wedding anniversary!  Egads!  Where have the years gone?

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Memories of Christmas 2012

This year we did something different for Christmas--we celebrated it the weekend before so that everyone could be here at the same time!  It was so much fun that perhaps it will become a new family tradition!

Our son and his family arrived late on Thursday, so we had all Friday to be with them.  Then late Friday afternoon our daughter and her family arrived--just in time for a nice "Christmas Eve dinner".  I wish I had thought to take photos then.

The next morning before opening gifts, Tom took Haiden out to buy donuts for breakfast. This is a tradition that Tom's father started with our children (and it's the only time of the year that we buy donuts). We decided that Garrett was too young to understand what was happening, so Tom took just Haiden.


Then, after trying to get the boys to eat a little something, it was nearly time to open gifts.  Here is Haiden waiting for everyone.


Hurry up, Papa!


A good time was had by all!







After lunch it was off to Entertrainment Junction for more family fun!  First we looked at the wonderful train displays....



and then there was time to play...




And then, all too soon, it was time for everyone to leave, so it was just Tom and me!  Sunday was busy with church in the morning and our church's annual Festival of Lessons and Carols in the evening. On Monday we had a quiet day at home (I stitched a lot on Ann Hair), and then after dinner it was off to church for our beautiful Christmas Eve service. Then it was Christmas Day!  Now that it is just the two of us, we have started eating Christmas breakfast in the dining room by candle light; we light the Advent wreath one final time.  (Yes, I know it is no longer Advent, but we do it anyway.)  Then we opened gifts and called relatives. 

I decided that I didn't want to cook another Christmas dinner since we had just done that on Friday, but I didn't want to have leftovers on Christmas Day either, so we went out to dinner at our favorite French restaurant.  This may become a new tradition.  Perhaps some of you are going through the same thing of making new traditions as your family situation changes.

And then yesterday we had a snowy day--it was so gorgeous! I love stitching in front of the fireplace while I watch the snow fall.   Last year we got virtually no snow here in southern Ohio, and even though I'm a Florida-native I sure missed it.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Wishing You A Joyous Christmastide!






I first heard the carol, This Christmastide, a few years ago when it was sung by our church's girls' choir at our annual Lessons and Carols service.  This carol has become one of my favorites so I've decided to share it with you today on Christmas Eve.  I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do. 


Wishing you a joyous Christmastide!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

A Special Gift from Mother to Daughter

Every year Marsha and her daughter Paulette stitch a sampler for each other as a gift.  They never know what the other one is stitching until the great "reveal".  I was very honored this year that Marsha chose my Hannah Cummins sampler to stitch for Paulette.  She chose this sampler because she loved the verse.

Look at the exquisite frame that Marsha chose!  Wow!  It certainly makes me drool!


Marsha and Paulette have so much fun each year with their winter sampler exchange.  I thought you might enjoy reading Paulette's version of the exchange on her blog.

Thank you, Marsha and Paulette, for sharing your great "reveal".  I bet you two are already planning which samplers to stitch next year.

Thank you to all who wrote regarding my predicament regarding the DMC thread colors for the Sarah E. Pope sampler.  Several people wrote that DMC didn't name their colors.  Instead the designers chose their own names to go with the numbers.  That certainly does explain why my two sets of names are so different.  I know that some of the dyelots have changed over the years because of the differences in dyes used, but the color changes are not nearly as large as I had at first thought.  (Thank goodness!)

Here is another photo of my sampler as of today.  I'm using 36-count Pecan Butter linen from Lakeside Linens.  My progress is slow because I have discovered in order to get enough thread coverage I need to repeat the first leg of each stitch.  (Earlier I tried stitching everything with two plies of thread, and that was too heavy.  Then I tried stitching everything with one ply of thread, and that was too skimpy.  My method of having two plies for the first leg and one for second leg is just perfect, albeit much slower than stitching the whole sampler with either one or two plies of thread.)


I'm getting ready to put Sarah aside to work on Ann Hair (reproduced by The Scarlet Letter) as part of Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  I'm in love with this sampler! Look at the mug, coaster, and note card I have of Ann's sampler.  (I wonder if "she" thinks I'm stalking her!) Now all I need to do is stitch her sampler!



I first started stitching Ann's sampler years ago.  I got in all of the vine across the top only to find out that I had misjudged and had only a half-inch linen margin on the right side.  My framer said she could work with that, but I decided to start over on a new piece of linen.  I got this far before putting the sampler aside (for heaven knows what reason!)


I recently decided to retrieve poor Ann upon learning of Nicola's SAL. Alas, I found I had issues once again. When I examined my progress thus far, I became fearsome that I wouldn't have enough thread for the border.  I ordered some more silks last week, and as feared the dyelots had changed over the years.  I'm certainly not going to start all over again because as you can see I already have in two lines of the verse (stitched over one linen thread!), and I don't want to re-do that.  So...my afternoon task is to rip out the border.  Wish me luck!  I hope to start making "positive" progress tomorrow. 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Out With the Old and In With the New Is Not Always a Good Thing!

My friend Carol suggested that we once again do a two person reproduction sampler SAL.  The sampler we chose is Sarah E. Pope which was reproduced by Sheepish Designs.  I'm not sure how long ago the sampler was reproduced, but it must have been quite a while ago because the chart is numbered 4 and the symbols are all hand drawn.  (What an undertaking that must have been!)

Sarah stitched her sampler in 1773, and it now belongs to the Newport (Rhode Island) Historical Society.  The main focus of the sampler is a large house in the center with trees on either side. 

There are five wonderful verses.

Duty fear and love we owe to good above. 

Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the lord she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gate.

Give frist to god the flowr of thy youth take for thy guide the holy word of truth adorn thy soul with grace price wisdom more than all the pearls upon the indian shore.

Labour for peace chuse to contend with none let reason with sweet calmness keep the throne treading fierce wrath and lawless passions down the grace of mekness is a womans crown.
  
I started stitching my version a few days ago, but lo and behold I have discovered that some of the DMC thread colors have changed dramatically.  For example DMC 3072 was described as Light Blue on the chart, and today the same thread number is described as Very Light Beaver Gray.  Yikes!  On the chart DMC 535 is described as Dark Purple, but today it's described as Very Light Ash Gray.  Yikes!
  
Here is what I'm facing.
DMC #            New Color Description       Old Color Description
310                 Black                                        Black
407                 Dark Desert Sand                  Rose
433                 Medium Brown                      Rust
435                 Very Light Brown                  Light Rust
452                 Medium Shell Gray               Light Purple
500                 Very Dark Blue Green          Dark Green
501                 Dark Blue Green                     Light Green
535                 Very Light Ash Gray              Dark Purple
610                 Dark Drab Brown                    Brown
739                 Very Light Tan                       Cream
744                 Yellow-Pale                              Yellow
924                 Very Dark Gray Green           Dark Blue
935                 Dark Avocado Green              Medium Green
950                 Light Desert Sand                   Light Pink
951 and 739                                                      Creamy Pink
3024               Very Light Brown Gray         Light Gray
3032               Medium Mocha Brown          Tan
3072               Very Light Beaver Gray         Light Blue

As you can see, I'm faced with quite a challenge.  I've tried to find a conversion between the old DMC thread colors and the new ones, but I haven't had any luck so I'm having to rely on the chart cover photo for guidance.  I seem to be doing a lot of stitching, frogging, and restitching.  I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.

If anyone has recently stitched this sampler and was able to discover the new thread numbers, please let me know.

Sorry this photo isn't better--I was too lazy to go downstairs and get my camera so I just took this one on my tablet.  I'll take a better one once I've made more progress.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Framed At Last!

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up two samplers from my framer, Carol.  The first one was Mary Gibson (a reproduction sampler from the Halsmere Museum).  The second was Janet Gibson (a reproduction by Loree from Hope's Dwelling Place).  These two Gibson girls are not related; it was just a coincidence that I was working on their samplers at the same time.  I really enjoyed stitching both of these, but then I haven't met a sampler I don't like.  They are so addictive!  Here they are:



On Friday, I took a new sampler model to Carol to be framed.  Both Tom and Carol (who is also a needleworker) really like the new sampler. (It still needs a name.)  I hope to release it along with a pair of Mini-Quaker Samplings in late January.  I hope you'll like them.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Counting the days until a class in Florida!

I'm counting the days until I return to Jacksonville, Florida to teach another class for members of the DuClay EGA Chapter.  I last taught for them nearly two years ago, and quite a few members were interested in my newest class,  A Lady's Worke Box.    Thanks to Melody the class will be offered on Saturday, February 23, 2013.

The class will be held at the Riverdale Inn, an old Jacksonville mansion built in 1901.  There are also 10 lodging rooms--perfect for needleworkers coming in from out of town.  I believe a special room rate is available for those choosing to spend the night at the inn.  The inn will be proving us with a delicious lunch.  How much fun we are going to have as we stitch and are pampered!

There are a few openings left in the class, so please contact Melody (mbryan10@comcast.net) as soon as possible if you are  interesting in attending.  (You must be present in class to get the kit.) 

Due to the time needed for me to get the class supplies, the cut-off for sign-ups is in just a couple of weeks.  Perhaps if someone is looking for a great last minute Christmas idea for you, you could suggest the class.  Can you imagine a better time than February to be in Florida?


Project Description: Needlework, both plain and fancy, at one time played a very important role in the daily life of many girls and women. Therefore, a sewing or worke box was a cherished possession because it was a place to safely store needlework itemsworke box. You will also make a needlebook with a Jacob’s Ladder binding, a pincushion, a three-sided scissors weight, and an embroidered panel for a wooden hornbook threadholder.

Stitches Used: alternating double backstitch, backstitch, closed herringbone, cross, cross stitch over one linen thread, cushion (traditional and reverse slant), diamond eyelet, double-sided Italian, four-sided, herringbone, mosaic, plaited cross, Rhodes, Rhodes heart, rice stitch variation, smyrna cross, tent, tied half Rhodes, and zigzag stitch.

Kit Supplies: In addition to photos and detailed directions for stitching and assembling the project, the kit includes 36-count linen, silk embroidery threads, DMC threads for the twisted cords and the whitework on the needlebook, hand-dyed silk ribbons, hand-dyed wool for the needlepage, dupioni silk for lining the needlebook and box, a wooden hornbook threadholder, a wooden ruler, a painted box, two threadwinders, printed covers for making a small notebook, mounting boards, and a needle.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of old friends at the class and hopefully making some new ones.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Celebrating Friendships

Several members of the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild in the Dallas, Texas area stitched the Ackworth Friendship Book.  Two of them, Jana K. and Karen H., sent me photos to share with you.

First are photos of Jana's book.





Jana wrote, My stitching friends are my closest friends.  I have loved that we share a love of needlework; I love stitching with them; I love traveling with them; they are my favorite people to get and receive gifts from; and they have been stalwart friends in times of sorrow and when I’ve been in need of help.  So when a group of us decided to stitch this friendship book, I was “all in.”

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching panels for all my friends in the group who were doing this project.  And I love that I have this memento of my friendship with them.  Most are from members of my local EGA chapter; I stitched the cover; my sister did one block; and two friends I work with also stitched a square (one was not confident in her stitching, so I stitched her square, and she did her initials.)  I’m so glad I got it put together, too.  The notes from each of them are in the pockets and I love pulling them out to read.

Ellen, thank you for designing this piece.  I have a treasured piece of needlework because of you.

The next photos are of Karen's book.  In the photos below you'll see, in addition to her book, Karen has a carrying bag and a pinkeep. One of her dear friends stitched a square for Karen's book, but the book was assembled before Karen got the stitched square back.  Oh dear—what to do?  Karen had her finisher, Kim, make the square into a pinkeep.  What a clever idea, Karen and Kim!  You can see the notes from Karen's friends poking out of the book pockets.





Thank you, Jana and Karen, for letting me share your work.  I'm glad that you and your friends enjoyed working on the project.  I'm sure that every time you look at your books they remind you of your wonderful friendships.  Perhaps you can get others in your group to also share their work.

Is Blogspot driving anyone else as crazy as it is me???  Several weeks ago, for reasons unknown, the width of my side margins changed so that some of the text is running into the margins.  I haven't had time to try to figure out why that is happening, so please bear with me.  Then today I had issues with where the photos wanted to go, the paragraph spacing, the text alignment, etc.  EGADS!  I've often had "issues" before, but nothing like this!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Getting to Know Mary and Her Family

Shortly after my last posting, I heard from Kathy Lesieur, who is quite an authority on southeastern Pennsylvania samplers, particularly those from Berks and Montgomery County.  Kathy recently curated an exhibit at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.  Kathy kindly shed some more light on Mary Katz whose sampler I recently stitched. 

Kathy wrote, How funny to see one of my girls from the exhibit at the Mercer. Mary Katz was actually from Montgomery County, not Bucks. She was born in the Barren Hill area of Whitemarsh, near Chestnut Hill. Her sister, Sarah's sampler and Sarah's daughter, Ann Catharine Streeper's samplers were featured in Vol. 2 of Finkel's "Samplings". Sarah's sampler is very similar to Mary's, but her bird is sitting on her rose tree. Their father owned a paper mill on the Wissahickon Creek and was one of the founders of St. Peter's Lutheran Church. He was also a trustee of the Barren Hill School. I don't have any information on the school, so I don't know if any of the girls stitched their samplers there.

I looked through my collection of old issues of Samplings and discovered I don't have Volume 2.  However, thanks to the kindness of Amy Finkel (M. Finkel & Daughter), here is a photo of Mary's sister Sarah's sampler.


It was a challenge, but I think Kathy and I have figured out Sarah's verse.
Sara Katz her hand and work this I leave to you when I lie buried deep in the dust and all my boans are rotten this you may see for to remember me for fear  I may be forgotten

Mary stitched her sampler in 1799 when she was 17 years old.   Her younger sister, Sarah, stitched her sampler in 1805 when she was 18 years old.

I found it fun to compare and contrast the two sisters' samplers. Mary's sampler (which I showed you in my previous blog post) is nearly square, but Sarah's is rectangular. Both samplers have a strawberry border.  Mary stitched a few of her strawberries in queen stitches, but Sarah used only cross stitches on all of hers.  Both girls stitched almost identical figures and a large parrot.  You may remember from my last posting that Mary's parrot was on the back of a chair; Sarah's is on top of the large floral and strawberry motif.  Mary stitched her floral and strawberry motif using just cross stitches; Sarah used queen stitches on her strawberries.


Sarah Katz married Leonard Streeper in 1809.  Below is a photo of the sampler that their daughter, Ann Catherine, stitched in 1836 when she was 10 years old (in her 11th year).  Perhaps she didn't want to be outdone by her mother and aunt, as she stitched two of those parrots!  Ann lived to the age of 93.


Kathy also told me about an exciting upcoming event.  On May 17 and 18, 2013, the Schwenfelder Library and Heritage Cennter in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania will hold its first Penn Dry Goods Market.  The event will include an antique textile show and sale with approximately 20 dealers, lectures, classes, and a Pennsylvania Dutch Dinner with the Dealers.  Boy, does that sound wonderful!  Kathy will keep me posted as more details are available, and I'll post the information in my newsletter.