Making progress on the Palace...

The Governor's Palace, Williams burg, VA., that is. It is a beautiful sampler by Homespun Samplar. Williamsburg has long been on my list of places to visit, but til that day comes, this will have to do. I'm using mostly silk fibers. Vikki Clayton's Hand Dyed Fibers to be exact. They are lovely to stitch with and reasonably priced. I have a terrible habit of becoming bored with a piece about half way through. I guess it could be the anticipation of wanting to begin something new. Either way, it happens. I wasn't overly excited about how this was looking on the plain cream 40ct. linen. I love the look of vintage linen, the more distressed the better. So in a flash I was up and setting about dying my fabric. Looking back, I guess it was crazy to do this after it was partly stitched. Tea staining doesn't add enough color for me, so I mixed small amounts of tan and yellow Ritz dye. It gave it a totally new look.

Two recent finishes

May I present "Sibley Hall" by the Goode Huswife? I stitched this piece over one thread on 30ct linen with one strand of silk. I've had this frame forever and thought this design would be perfect for it. I really enjoy stitching over one now and then. I love the way it is so compact and petite. They are hard to see, but those are dogs marching across the lawn. Birds and dogs and houses...a few of my favorite things to stitch.

Here is Maria P. Oliver by Barrick Samplers. It was a thoroughly enjoyable quick stitch. Stitched on 40ct. linen with one strand of silk over two. After it was stitched, I coffee stained it. You never know how staining your piece will come out, but I was pleased with the result.

At last

I have finally finished #17 New England Schoolgirl Sampler. It was stitched on 36ct linen with one strand of silk. The top part grassy area and sheep were stitched over one. It is not even close to being stitched as originally charted. I switched a few colors, omitted all the Queen stitches and, redesigned the side border a bit. As always, I got antsy about finishing it about three quarters of the way though. I'm glad it's done.

Who hired these two?

There's nothing unusual about two dogs napping unless they happen to be on the job

while they're doing it. Here are Ruby and Scarlett sound asleep under my desk.

Luckily for me, my boss is a dog lover, and he allows me to bring them to work.

When nap time is over, they chase their ball up and down the hall way. There is always someone willing to give it a throw. They also go from office to office looking for treats and lunch hand outs. Don't they blend in nicely with the tile?

This is the name plate outside my door. Even though I'm the

one that does the work, I'm still surprised that I got top billing.

A little progress

is being made on my latest stitching project. It took a while to finish this section since it is completely filled in. The verse will be on either side of the bowl of fruit and it is stitched over one. At first I wasn't sure if I liked the charted colors. They seemed too bright for my taste, but they look really nice on the linen.

A Sweeter Love

is finally framed. I felt that it needed a simple frame because it is very colorful. I mentioned in a previous post that I made many changes. I omitted a large over one swan and switched out several colors. It really is a very pretty sampler.

A small sampling

of my current work in progress, #17 New England Schoolgirl Sampler by Theron Traditions. It has been in my stash for a very long time. I've picked it out to start many times, but always went on to something else. It has several stitches besides cross like Queen Stitch, Long Arm Cross, Rice Stitch, and Palestrina Knot. I like doing the Queen Stitch, but we'll see on the others. It also has quite a lot of over one. I'm using a 36ct. dirty linen. It seems really big to me since I normally prefer 40ct.