I can't help myself...

We have a tale of two witches.  Can you guess which witch is the bad witch?  Actually, they are both good witches!  They are only giving me the evil eye because I made them sit still and pose.

Now this one...is the devil.  There's no doubt about it.

Happy Halloween!

South Carolina Part One

I'm back home from a wonderful trip to South Carolina.  I visited there over thirty-seven years ago, and I've had "Carolina in My Mind" ever since.  The first stop was Charleston, an incredibly beautiful and historic city.  We spent two days exploring almost entirely on foot, with the exception of a carriage ride tour.  When we were worn out, we escaped back to our room at The Meeting Street Inn.  It is a fabulous inn.  The rooms are furnished with amazing antiques.  Yes, those beds are high.  What you can't see is the step stool in between them.  It came in very handy for my short companion.  It was such an awesome place to stay.  I really hated to check out.

This was a cemetery that we walked through.  It was a peaceful and lovely place. 

The architecture captivated my attention the most.  I could live in any of the houses, and be perfectly happy.  I loved the shuttered windows, wide southern porches, gas lights, intricate iron work, and well...everything.  The gardens were beyond stunning.  Many were very English looking in their layout.  Wouldn't you love to be sitting in one of those rockers stitching away?

A highlight of the trip was a visit to The Charleston Museum.  I am very grateful to my friend, Carol for suggesting that we make an appointment to view some of the many samplers housed there.  I knew that the Ann Wragg Sampler below was there, but I didn't know that samplers aren't always on display.  The curator was very gracious and let us view several.  Seeing Ann up close was a thrill.  It is a small sampler, but the stitching is perfectly done. 

My other favorite was the Mary Bella Hopkins Sampler.  A large sampler with beautiful stitching in really nice colors.  Oh, how I wish someone would reproduce it.  I would be first in line to buy the chart.

In my next post, I'll tell you about the trip up the coast to Myrtle Beach.

Hobbling to the beach...

 I am finally ready to head to the beach bright and early tomorrow morning.  It's been a busy, busy week filled with all the last minute things to do before a trip.  If I can get my suitcase zipped, I'll be good to go.  The hobbling part is because I have a bad knee that has been acting up.  A quick trip to the doctor for a cortisone shot was necessary.  So, I might be limping, but it won't keep me from enjoying this "me" time with the girls.  To those of you who are going...I'll see you there.

I haven't painted in a very long time, but I did this week.  Out of all the sets I've done, I never kept one for myself.  I thought it was about time to do just that.  I love colonial stencilling, and I love silhouettes, so I was inspired to combine the two.  My dear friend Patti, brought me the sweet little bag back from Paris.  It's the perfect little accessory case.  Every time I look at it, I'll be reminded of my little boy back home who's really going to miss his mama for a few days.

On a side note, I've been getting emails about where to purchase my charts.  I am distributed through Hoffman, so any shop can order directly through them or me. 

Jingle

Here's my latest design, Jingle all the way.  It's a pin keep, but I like to use them in potpourri filled bowls.  I love the linen, it's called Swamp, and it's from PTP Colorscapes.  Not your traditional Christmas color, but it was fun to use.  My model is stitched with Belle Soie Mahogany and Icing on 36ct.  If you'd rather use cotton over-dyes, Cayenne and Toasted Marshmallow from Crescent Colours are good conversions.  I thought the bell was a nice touch, but it is charted with a snowflake if you'd prefer it that way.  The bell was found at Hobby Lobby.  The trim is jumbo Rick Rack from Wrights in the color Bark. 

Thanks again to the amazing Vonna for taking my visions and making them work. 

I'm still working on the model for Hannah Tingey, but I'm itching to get back to stitching for fun.  I'm thinking ahead to what projects to take for the trip to Myrtle Beach for the Pals 2011 Stitchin' At The Beach retreat which is coming up soon.  I'm beyond excited to see some old friends, and make some new ones.  I'm a surf and sand girl, so I can't wait to get to the beach.  We're spending a couple of days in Charleston before heading up the coast.  I've never been to that city, and I just know I'm going to love it.

Emma, Hannah, and I

Happy Fall!  We are still waiting for those cooler temps, but they can't be far away now.  To be honest, I've hardly paid any attention to the weather.  My needle has kept me busy.  I've spent more time with Hannah, below and Emma Mills, above.  The antique Emma is a sweet little sampler in my collection, and the chart will be released next week.  The original sampler was stitched on fabric that looks like dirty linen.  I tried to reproduce it with similar linen, but I was never happy with the result.  I then tried Meadow Rue, and that didn't work either.  I finally settled on vintage Lentil, and I used a variety of cotton overdyes.  It needed a bit of brightening up.  One has to wonder what prompted little Emma to stitch her admonishment about the evils of money. 

Hannah's red house is going up brick by brick.  I love stitching bricks for some odd reason.  I couldn't wait to get to the deer, and it was a fun motif to do.  I forgot to mention that I'm using 45ct. Buttercream and NPI for her.  Her release will probably be late in October.  In addition to Emma, I will be releasing a new design called "Jingle all the way" very soon.  The talented Vonna has worked her finishing magic once again.  It's a Death By Candy Corn meets Christmas idea , and it's somewhat primitive.   

We recently bought this small motorhome to travel with the dogs in. I'm hoping that we will escape the heat more often next summer.  We took it up to the pines of northern AZ this weekend.  If you look closely, it appears that I am fenced in.  Um, that would be for the pups who were too busy lounging on the beds inside.  The van has all the comforts of home, but I think it needs a sampler or two hanging in there somewhere.  Just saying...

The Red House Addiction

I've started the model for my next reproduction sampler.  I purchased Hannah Tinguey 1823 before we went on vacation last month.  I'm really drawn to red lettering on samplers, and the red house pretty much sealed the deal.  The stitching on the original is very, very tiny and just exquisite.  I was amazed to see that the thread colors are still very vivid.  The verse is also charming, and I love the way she spelled denied as deniyed. 

Aren't those big eyed stags wonderful?

It seems that most of the antique samplers that I come across come from England.  I thought about that as I was waiting for her to make the trip across the ocean.  I can only surmise that our young American girls were much too busy with day to day chores and basic survival in the early 18th and 19th centuries. 

I grabbed my camera when I saw these three sitting together.  It doesn't happen that often as Scarlett doesn't like to be next to Henry.  She tolerates him, but barely.  I'm sure if she could talk she'd say something like "girls rule, boys...yea, not so much". 

Loot!

 There's a very good reason for my lack of blogging lately...I've been in the Midwest.  Actually, the road trip took us through nine states, but Iowa and Minnesota were the main destinations.  While there, we visited family and enjoyed some incredible weather.  Sadly, we came home to temps around 116.  I keep telling myself that we are near the end of the heat, but there is still more than a month of it to go before we head into the chamber of commerce weather. 

I'm fairly certain that I hit every antique shop between here and there.  Above is some of the misc. loot that came home with me.  I see a theme going on with the alphabet, don't you?  I guess I'm pretty predictable, I always seem to look for the same things every trip such as vintage photos, old buttons, canning jars, silhouettes, and pewter.  I really had no intention of bringing home another piece of salt-glazed pottery, but I couldn't resist these two.  The crock was a steal at $40, and the jug, complete with "turkey droppings" was only $15.  I had no clue what a turkey dropping was until a woman stopped me to admire them on the jug.  She enlightened me with a story about the brown splats.  The glaze apparently drips/drops onto the ones below them in the kiln.  According to her, they make a piece more desirable and valuable.  Who knew?

We attended this event in Minnesota for the second year.  Last year, I flew and was limited to what I could bring home.  This year, I was prepared and brought our van.  We were just about to leave when I spotted the spinning wheel.  I have to say that I was feeling a little disappointed because I hadn't found any samplers worth buying and had missed out on a wonderful old spool cabinet by minutes.  So, when this came into view, I was excited.  It has the original blue/black paint, and is from 1844. You can see where the paint has worn from use.

The bee skep is not old, but I have always wanted one.  I'm hoping that it will age in time.

 Now this is something that you do not see everyday.  It was originally a large rhubarb leaf.  My sis-in-law participated in a fundraiser by making these.  I can't remember the exact process, but it involves forming an actual leaf over a mound of dirt to form the bowl.  Then some type of plaster mixture is added to make it hard.  This one was painted, but I love how you can see the veins.  I'm using it for a small bird bath along the walkway.

 We were on hand to wish brother-in -law, Mike a happy 50th.  He was golfing at the time, and came home to a surprise party.  That is yours truly in the middle.  I'm the only one not holding up a "50" napkin.  Another sister-in-law had just given me something from Tastefully Simple, and that is what I am displaying.

 We also spent time in this resort  I mean farm, of yet another sister and brother-in-law.  It is absolutely lovely here, and the dogs ran and played until they could run no more.  I sat on the patio and stitched...it was heaven.