A Gentleman's Samplings

Hello gentle readers and dear friends. Once again I must apologize for the lack of updates on my blog. hard to believe that the last time I updated this was in September. I guess my resolution for the New Year will be to update everyone at least once a month even though with the amount of stitching I am planning I will need to do it a little bit more often - maybe once every two weeks. My gaol for next year is to limit my starts and complete some of the WIPS that I have.  I have a couple of large ones that I really want to get completed and a few others that have been in the pile for over a couple of years.  Not much to do on a lot of them so that will most definitely give me a since of accomplishment. I have been traveling a lo over the past couple of months for work (not pleasure) and have not gotten much stitching done. I have been working on some small Christmas ornaments to share with family and friends.  I will post some pictures afte...

Hello fellow bloggers, friends and stitchers.  I have to admit that Jane has gotten the best of of me - I am nearly there but it is taken longer than I want to admit.  Here is a picture of the progress and a couple of close ups.   Not much further to go. Just a little bit more of the border, and then I can concentrate on the lettering, Adam and Eve. In order to give myself a break and to give myself a small feeling of accomplishment, I decided to work on a couple of small things. This is a small Irish Samplings pincushion by The Nostalgic Needle. This will be finished as an an ornament for an exchange in December. I worked this on 36-ct mystery fabric using some left over silks and Gentle Arts Sampler Threads. Here are a couple of other ornaments that I have stitched up also for exchanges. (Just need to "finish" them). Both of them are from past issues of the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament magazine. I also stitched With My Needle's Quaker ...

Hello everyone. No pictures on this post - just wanted to give a brief update on what I have been working on. I am still stitching away on my restart of Jane Atkinson. I am nearly done with my border and the big tree in the center.  I have been going back and forth between the tree and the border just to have a change of pace.  Lots of green and brown in that tree which gets a little bit boring.  I have also started on the one over one saying in the top portion of this sampler.  I am doing full cross stitches on the saying. This is not going to be fun but decided if I just do one or two words between my other stitching that will get it completed in no time. Also in rotation at this time is the Drawn Thread's Tocatta Four. This is one with a lot of different band style motifs.  I started this when it was first available (2008?) and have picked it up again just to give me something different to work on.  Lots of specialty stitches and I am doing this one ...

My work life and personal life have been keeping me very busy over the past several weeks. So much so that I have been neglecting my blogging friends and hobby. I hopefully will get with the program to keep this blog more updated (even if it is just a post to say “HI”). I am going to be heading back to Tasmania at the end of the week so thought it would be best to go ahead and get an update posted for all of my blogging friends on what I have been up to in the stitching realm of my life. First up – Jane (my new best friend) In my previous post I showed progress on Jane Atkinson by Scarlet Letter. I was working away on the top portion of the flower border and started to get close to the left hand side of the linen. Fears of not having the linen big enough started going through my mind. I tend to measure to make sure that I will have at least 2 inches of extra linen around my project for framing purposes. I also tend to measure my linen and chart at least twice before I start just to...

I have been doing a lot of traveling over the past couple of months so have not had a lot of time to update the blog. Family, work and life in general seem to take up most of my time lately. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends that put up with me being out of pocket for a week or two at a time. But in today’s economic environment I am truly blessed to have a job that I enjoy and which allows me to see places that I would never get around to seeing if I had to do it on my own. As posted in a previous blog, I am currently managing a project for a company located in Devonport, Tasmania Australia.  It is one of the most awe inspiring places that I have ever been and the people are some of the most generous and friendly that you will ever meet.  Over half of the island is a temperate rainforest which is so thick that it blocks out the sun. Some of the most scenic mountains and beaches are also within easy reach. You can also travel from the northern most par...

Thank you to all of my followers for your kind comments on my Aeltie Claes 1673 by Essamplaire. It is a fun piece. I was able to complete all of the regular cross stitch of the bands on the left hand side.  I am starting work on the part of the design with the running stitch.  I really think I will change this to be a four-sided  stitch since it will make it look a little bit more “lacy”.  The running stitch that it calls for does not show up very well with the white silk thread. So will need to see what will work best.  My latest finish is Rhoda Hastings 1863. I was able to finish her on this trip. As stated in a previous post she is stitched on 40-ct using Hand Dyed Fibers. I have also been working on the Celtic Sampler – Wallace by Needle’s Prayse.  I am stitiching it on 40-count linen using the specified NPI fibers. This one has been a lot of fun so far. There is no cross stitch in the whole piece.  I have been switching b...

First I want to apologize to all my friends and followers for not posting in over two weeks.  Life and work have gotten in the way of keeping everyone up to date on any finishes and works in progress. As mentioned in my profile, I am a software consultant for a company based in Dallas, Texas. One of the  the projects that I am currently working on has me traveling to Stockholm, Sweden about once a month. I have not been traveling since December of last year so it has been a nice break. Here are a couple of pictures from one of my favorite cities -- Stockholm (excuse the quality - just have my camera phone this trip). These are taken by the Royal Palace looking east and west at a couple of the any bridges of Stockholm. The one to the right is the overflow from the lake into the bay (see all the chunks of ice from the frozen lake!). The one to the left show a portion of the Royal Palace, the National Museum, and some buildings located on the island of Skeppsholmen. Th...

I finally finished Shakespeares Peddler's Sarah Woodham. The colors in this are really nice. I got a little tired of the border but it is one of those things that you can stitch and not really have to reference the pattern all the time.  Next up on my list of items to finish is Samplers and Such's Rhoda Hastings 1863 .  I am a little over half way done with this sampler.  I really like all of the little motifs and the saying: "Go Like your heavenly father feed the poor  carry comfort to the sick mans door pity the widow be the orphans friend and if you cannot give then freely lend".     This sampler was started last year on 40-ct Lakeside Linen Pearled Barley using HDF threads.

A number of visitor's to the blog wanted to see a progress picture of my latest project -- Shakespeare's Peddler Sarah Woodham. So without further delay, here is my progress using the recommended threads on 40-ct light exampler.  I started the project in early December after completing the Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler. The picture looks a little dark.  Once finished I will take a picture using better lighting.  Still trying to get use to taking pictures of my projects. I was able to get the honeysuckle (at least that is what I think the flowers are) vine completed last night.  So now just need to work on the flowers themselves.  That should go fairly quickly since they are not full flowers and only two colors. Need to force myself to do some more of the verse.  I am doing in with half crosses (or tent) since it is over one.  On the 40-ct fabric they looked a little bulky. I also changed the color of the large trees on the left and r...

A fellow blogger wanted me to post some pictures of some of my older finishes. So Michelle this is for you: "I Sigh Not For  Beauty" by Ruth Ann Russell Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly #24 Fall 2001 Completed in 2002 My wife really liked this one so I stitched her name and date in the sampler. "American Sampler" by Sandy Orton Treasures in Needlework Spring 1993 Completed in 1993 "Provence Sampler" by Butternut Road Stitched on 28-ct linen over 1 using Caron Watercolors Camaflouge Completed 1999 Will post some more over the next few days as I get some pictures taken.  Really need to practice on my photography.

I had a very productive stitching weekend.  I was able to finish Scarlet Letter's JCS 1707 on Saturday morning.  Then it was into the works in progress pile to see what else I could get finished.  I am really bad at only having about 2 more hours to go on something but another item will come into view that looks fun and I start working on that instead of finishing a sampler that is nearly done. (Guess I just get bored with it). This year I am wanting to get some of these items that I have started completed.  So much more fun to have something that I can say is complete and move it from the in progress pile to the completed storage box. So I picked up Long Dog's Words Alone sampler.  I only had a couple of motifs to complete on the sampler so I was able to finish it up before the Super Bowl Game on Sunday. Now I just need to post the pictures.  Will try to do that this evening once I get them pressed. Picked back up Shakespear Peddler's Sarah Wood...

As my new start for the year, I have been working on Scarlet letter's JCS 1707 sampler. I really like the motifs on this sampler. I am working it on on overdyed Lakeside Linen 40 count fabric using the DMC colors listed. I was going to do it in silks but really like the way it is turning our with the coton floss. I was hoping to complete this by the end of the month but it looks like I am not going to make it. I have about 75 percent of it complete but do not think that three days is enough time to get the rest completed. I will post a picture later of the progress.

Welcome Friends. After a lot of discussion with friends who blog, I think it is time to create a place where I can share my thoughts along with pictures of my favorite hobby - cross sticth samplers. Since I am new at this it might take me some time to get the hang of everything but hopefully I can get on the blog wagon fairly quickly. Please check back for further updates.