May I have more hours in my day, please?

Country Life is now in it's beautiful burled wood frame. I thought it would be a real bugger to stretch and pin, but it wasn't that bad. I came close to running out of pins though. My guess is that I used close to a bazillion. It is so hard to photograph closely so here it is in sections.

We've had some gloomy, cool weather lately. Perfect weather to plop in front of the TV and indulge myself with my new wool obsession. I can stitch all day and night and never get tired of it, but this is a nice change of pace. I tried something new and tea dyed the cream colored mat part. It was just too bright. I even dunked the pennies in for a bit. I love the result. I wasn't sure if the wool would take a tea bath well, but I read that all natural fibers will. I have an idea to try next that will combine both penny mats and my love of samplers.

Here's the resting spot for it.

Like I said in my post title, I wish I could order up a few more hours in the day. I never seem to have enough time to get to all the crafty goodness that I want to. I miss making collage art and cards, and I really need to make more effort to do that again. I've just finished my first cross stitch design. The model will soon be stitched, and I'll share that when I can. Then there's the myriad of samplers waiting in the wings, not to mention a couple more must do's from market.

Something needs to give. I know... I'll give up exercising, laundry, and housework.

Have a wonderful week.

Juggling and struggling

Country Life is finally finished. I have joked that I started this back in the 80's, and actually it was late last summer. There were so many times that I wanted to put it aside and start something new, but I'm glad I persevered. I have the most enabling bunch of friends (you know who you are!) and I can be easily pulled off in another direction. I did chart and stitch Maria Tilley in between though. The hardest part will be the framing since it's so long and awkward. I have a wonderful burled wood frame that will work great. You should be able to click on the picture and see it bigger. (Nope, it didn't work for me, I'm definitely in need of a blog overhaul.) I had a doozy of a time photographing it. I had to lay it on the floor and stand on a chair to capture it all.

I feel like I'm struggling and juggling to get to all the things that I want to accomplish. We all have overflowing stashes with samplers that are waiting in the wings. Then there's the new stuff coming to tempt us from the Nashville market. Adding to that, I've started charting my antique Sarah Elizabeth, plus I want to design a sampler, and I still want to play with wool. I'm overwhelmed by my desires. Sounds like a cheesy line in a hopelessly romantic novel, doesn't it?

I literally woke up this morning and my very first thought was to start Sophia's Sampler from Scarlet Letter today. Seriously, the world is in total chaos and this is my first thought? Sad...but true. My pal, Sandra has stitched Sophia. I watched and drooled over her progress forever. I'm going to do mine on 40ct. vintage Lentil that has a lot of mottling. I think the colors in her are great. There's a bit of free-hand stitching and I haven't done much of that on samplers. It'll be a challenge.

This sweet little sampler was stitched by nine year old Emma Mills in 1839. It is now hanging in our guest bathroom. I treated myself to her for Valentine's Day. It was hard to get a good photo through the glass, but I plan to reproduce her this year.

Thank you so very much for the comments and congratulations on the birth of little Rowan.

Here's what's happening...

As I inch ever closer to finishing Country Life, I am so ready to have it done. I wish my photo would do it justice because it is such a beautiful sampler. There's just a bit more of the border, a line of verse, and the over one animals in the corner. I'm considering adding a sheep and a cow in place of repeating the pig and horse as charted. In continuing my new love affair with wool and penny rugs, I made this candle mat recently. The black bottom was once a nice blazer from Goodwill.


I had this in mind when I chose the colors for the pennies.
Please ignore the old woman in the photo and meet my new granddaughter, Rowan Elizabeth. She was born on Wednesday. She's pink and perfect, and we are all in love with her already.

Here I am on Christmas day with the other grand kids, Olivia, Quinn, Kai, and Sawyer. We'll need to make room for Rowan next year.

I plan to start charting Sarah Elizabeth Brooke this week. I bought another antique sampler which just arrived yesterday, and I'll be doing that one, also. I'll post a picture next time. My plan for 2011 is to have those two ready and possibly an original design thrown in.