Examplars From The Heart

THANK YOU ALICE

2011-06-12T16:30:00.000-04:00

I would like to thank Alice from Paris, Madrid for sending me a picture of her finished sampler of "SHEPHARD AND SHEPHARDESS" she sent it to me a while back and I would like to opologize for posting it until now since I had a lot of things going on in my life at that time. Alice used DMC and Anchor threads to stitch her piece, she also did some color changes to her liking, which I love, since she likes stiff thicker materials to stitch on, she used 14 count Aida cloth. Since she was stitching during Xmas she added a wreath on the top window of the house and changed the verse to one that refers to Easter. Again Alice I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing a picture of your finished piece with me and look forward to another finished.

I have not been able to post as I would like, since summer is a very busy time of year for me, children, grandchildren who love to spend time at our house really keep me on my toes, but I love and enjoyed their time when they come over and we ride bikes and go swimming. I also like to spend time working in my garden and I been taking time also to stitch a bunch of my wips that I have been trying to finish since I had them in a basket for so many years.

I have had many request that I show some of my designs held by someone (I will ask my daughter) and post the pictures on my blog since they would like to see the size of them. I will try to do that this coming week, since today is my husbands birthday and my daughter had made plans to celebrate her fathers birthday spending time at the pool and with a cookout.

Enjoy your summer and many blessings, Vilma

GOODIES, PICTURES AND WIP

2011-04-23T21:12:00.000-04:00

I started this wip from Sheepish Designs so many years ago, and since I made a decision to finish them one by one after so many years of having them put aside. I decided to put a simple border on it since I felt something was missing on it after I finished it and felt it looked good. I also put the initials under the ballon of Alex and Grant since there are two boys in the air ballon and under the crowns I put the initials of my daughter and my son-in-law. So I decided that they would love this sampler for their anniversary, so I am off the hook now since I will not have to go out and look for a present. I will take a picture and share it with you all when I get it back from the framer. I will be crossing my fingers that they like it since I personalized it just for them.

Here is Grant who is two years old, having his first ride on a pony, he really loved it so much that his mom and dad had a hard time getting him off of him, he wanted to take the pony home, he had a great time. So I guess this will be a weekly adventure for him this summer.

I also ordered these six graphs that I had my eyes on for quite a while, but I really want to finish all my wips first before I start on these, I still had some money left over and ordered some graphs and scissors from Pineberry Lane that I wanted. I will take pictures of them and show them on my next post. So there went my gifts certificates, but at least I spent it on something that I wanted.

Since I had received some gift certificates for my birthday and I never got to spend them since I really didn't see anything I wanted. But nosey me had to go and check out Anita's Little Stitches and saw all these new scissors and I went bananas with not just one or two of them, but nine of them, I know I should not have done that but the temptation was there, so I just ordered them and received them 2 days later, wow that was a quick delivery. I also had ordered the cross scissors since I love crosses and Anita was so sweet and sent it to me as a gift. Love, love the cross scissor it is so well crafted and beautifully made. Thank you Anita for your wonderful gift, I will treasure it always.

Wishing you all a blessed Easter and hope all the mothers and grandmothers have a wonderful time with their children and grandchildren on their Easter egg hunt. God bless you all, Vilma

Birthday, News and Wip

2011-04-03T18:48:00.001-04:00

I was finally able to finish the wip of The Little Fat Birds from Sheepish Designs that I started years and years ago. When I started stitching this design I used silk threads on 32 count Linsey-Woolsey that the Scarlet Letter use to carry years ago. I will take a picture when I get it framed and share it on my blog so you all can see what it looks like framed. I am working on another wip that I will share real soon.

Nice trip to Dollywood for the grandchildren, the had a wonderful time and it was so wonderful to see Dolly Parton in her antique car waving to everybody, she looked wonderful and Grand enjoyed the rides.

Wow did we get a big hail storm the other week, with strong winds and lots of rain, lots of roofs in the Greenville are got damaged, ours included so thank goodness for house insurance because we are having a new roof installed in our house, but it was nice to see it from inside the house.

Last but not least, I want to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful and wonderful daughter Jeannette, her birthday is tomorro April 4th. happy birthday daughter, you are the best, love mom.

Blessings to all of you, Vilma

THIS &THAT AND NEW

2011-02-09T08:22:00.001-05:00

This is "REMEMBER US" which was stitched on my 38 count hand-dyed linen using 15 colors of WDW hand dyed threads. The designs is 136wX222h. Model was stitched by Tracy Yandle from North Carolina, thank you so much Tracy for the wonderful job you did in stitching this model.

Here is my model daughter holding the new design of "REMEMBER US" as always Ingrid helps me choose the best frames for my new releases.

This is the other new design "BEHOLD MY WORK" it is a band sampler that was stitched on 34 count hand-dyed linen with 3 colors of Florimell Silk Floss by Gloriana. The design took 40 yards of each color to stitch.
Colors that were used were Inca Gold, Schoolhouse Red and Antique Black. I would like to thank Anne from Gloriana for the courtesy of her beautiful hand-dyed silks for this design. Last but not least I would also want to say thank you so much to Mindy Gooding from Texas for her patience in stitching the model while she was recuperating from a knee surgery, as always I love how beautiful she always stitches my models. The design
is 252wX367h. It took me a while and alot of thinking before making the decision to release it.

Here is a picture of my daughter holding the framed new design of "BEHOLD MY WORK" so you can all see how big it turned out.

My wonderful husband had my finished sampler of Ann Kirby framed, since I had picked out that frame one day and I guess he remembered and surprised me with my sampler all framed up and ready to hang on the wall, so what better present for a stitcher to receive. That is my son-in-law Stephen holding the framed sampler while I took a picture so you can all see the the size of sampler. So even though I was sick, it really made my day special receiving these wonderful gifts on my birthday.

I was showing my daughter this beautiful scissor fob on Tracys blog that I loved because it was made with turquoises (my favorite stone) and I loved that it had coral, turquoise and silver rondels, and loved the tail detail that she did on the horse, so my daughter bought it so my grandchildren could give it to me on my birthday, love it, love it and it is a very long and heavy scissor fob, there is no way that I would ever misplace my scissors on this scissor fob.

My wonderful friend Tracy Yandle from "Tracys Treasures" http://hobbiesfromtheheart.blogspot.com/ made and sent me for my birthday a beautiful scissor fob made of beautiful peach and gold color aventurines with a beautiful butterfly in between the stones and a BIG "B" at the end. I received it the day of my birthday, thank you so much Tracy for your beautiful gift, I will treasure it always and think of you when I am stitching. Tracy is creating some unique and one of a kind chatelaines and scissor fobs for sale, please visit her blog.

My daughter brought me a beautiful vase with two dozen of roses for my birthday with a beautiful hand painted card, also DH gave me a beautiful card and since I had been sick in bed with a bad bronquitis we were not able to go out for dinner, but I really enjoyed their surprised visit with the grandchildren who brought me a delicious chocolate fudge cake with chocolate butter cream frosting.

My many thanks to Faye, Tracy, Susan, Natalia, Alice, April Mechelle, blueladie, tender rose for your wonderful and kind comments, and also Alma Allen :) yes Alma I am really enjoying my ipad, downloading books, music and games like crazy. Hope you are enjoying yours also.

Many blessings to everyone and hope you all have a wonderful Valentine day, Vilma

THE BEST GIFTS RECEIVED

2010-12-29T15:29:00.003-05:00

This is my daughter Jeannette holding her precious Christmas gift that she received, his name is DJ and he is a Pekingese, she was so happy since this is what she wanted and my son-in-law was going crazy going to every animal shelter in Greenville looking for a Pekingese dog and he finally found DJ(this was the name he had when he was adopted so she decided to keep the name he responded to) poor DJ was so nerveous after being in a cage and finally having a loving home with my daughter, he is 3 years old.

He loves being around her boys and the boys are crazy about him, he is such a good dog. About nine years ago my daughter had found another Pekingese that was black and a little older at another animal shelter, she fell in love with him and his name was Finnigan, but he died before my grandson Grant was born and she got so upset and emotional because she loved him so much and had him for eight years. So all she wanted for Christmas was another Pekingese since they are so lovable and what better places to go than animal shelters and look around and see who needs a loving home. So now Jeannette is happy and DJ is also happy to have a loving mama and a loving family that love him. DJ follows her everywhere, I guess because he is adjusting to his new family and home.

This is one of my other best Christmas gift that I received this year and it is a 12x14 picture of my other two grandchildren that live in Texas, Haven is 12 and Trinity is 8 WOW how times goes by. Since they were not able to come for the Holidays, my son Harold sends us a picture of the grandchildren every year so that I can frame and hang in the family picture wall going up the stairs. It is so amazing how fast children grow. My other best Christmas gift was spending Christmas with my daughter and son-in-law and my other two grandchildren Alex and Grant. We feel so blessed by God to for these beautiful gift he has given us.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING

2010-12-20T17:48:00.000-05:00

What has been happening and what I have been up to. With Christmas so close and being so busy doing so many things to have everything ready for the holidays, I have not had time for anything else but getting ready for the holidays. But thank goodness I can now relax since I have finished with outside and inside decorations, packing all the gifts to put under the tree, sending out Christmas cards, grocery shopping since it is my turn to do the cooking and baking, so now I am ready for Christmas.

I had to do alot myself since my husband went out of the country for 10 days (not very nice of him) and
left me to do alot on my own. So I have not had any time to relax or even do some stitching and that is sad :( but I do have my new releases for Feb. 2011 framed, and that is good.

It has been really cold and windy down here and kind of kept me inside for a couple of days, but lucky me I came down with a bad cold which left me with no energy but to stay in bed. Until today I had a little time to post something and let you all now what I have been up to and what is going on in my life. Thank goodness my husband came home last night because I was ready to cry, yes cry out of desperation since with all the days of strong winds my phone went dead, the alarm system went crazy in the house scarring me to death and having to deal with everything else, I was ready to run out of the house. Thank goodness my son-in-law took care of the problems, thank goodness for son-in-laws when husbands are
not available.

Hope everybody is ready for Christmas, especially those with small children how are so anxious for that special day when they can open all those presents and see their big and happy smiles on their faces.

I posted these pictures of two of my grandchildren that I took pictures of when they came over for holloween and loaded up on lots of candy and seeing them have a great time and their big smiles on their happy faces.

Many blessings to all of you, Vilma

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO LATELY.

2010-11-20T19:24:00.000-05:00

I received an early Xmas gift from my wonderful husband that was on my Xmas list, well the thruth is I had to force him to give it to me since I did not want to wait until Xmas, so he gave in and I am so happy, happy since I have wanted a iPad since they first came out. In the box was a generous gift certificate from Amzon and Barnes and Nobles so I can download the BIG LIST of books I wanted. The
other gift on my wishlist is a Tablet computer from HP, where the screen rotates and can also lay flat. I know he has gotten it for me but the problem is I have not been able to convince him to hand it over, yes that is the way I phrase it to him but I am having trouble in getting it, so I guess I will have to look at all the hidding places in the house, because I do not have the patience to wait until Christmas :( :( I know patiance is a virtue I do not have.

I have also been so busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays coming and trying to get my list of Christmas finished since I like to do my shopping early and not get caught in the rush, when everybody is going crazy and you cannot even walk in the mall or find a parking space. That is the only thing that drives me bananas during the holidays. But thank goodness I am almost finish.

So with all this going on, I have not been able to do anything involving needlework :( :( but then I also
needed a break and do other things that were a priority right now.

I wish everyone of you a blessed Thanksgiving, may God bless you all and your family in such a wonderful holiday and give thanks to God for all his blessings, even though for me everyday I get up is a blessing which I thank God for.

This has also been another project I have been doing at home. I bought this comforter with the ruffle and pillow shams because I fell in love with the color. The color is like when you slice a sweet and ripe dark watermelon inside, but it is not red, well I went to Home Depot and see if they could do a paint match of the comforter and they did a wonderful color match, so I have just gone bananas redecorating this guest bedroom and love the way it turned out. I also used three diferent kind of materials with the same color scheme, they blended wonderful so I had the sofa redone in a antique gold, the cushions in diferent patterns, but most of all I love the two oil paintings above the bed and the two angel figurines that I fell in love with as soon as I saw them.

So now I am busy redoing the other guest room, but more in a Victorian style, I fell in love with a beautiful paint color that kind of resembles DMC 930 and I want to do the compliments in the color white. When I finish I will take some pictures and share them and see what you all think.

SHARING HARRIET'S "FRIENDS"

2010-10-22T14:56:00.000-04:00

I want to thank Harriet for sharing some pictures of her finished piece of "FRIENDS" that she stitched for her friend Lorrie, who chose a beautiful way to display it, in a tray. Harriet said that when she first saw the design of "FRIENDS" she knew she wanted to stitch it for her dear friend Lorrie. that the inclusion of the cup just seemed like such a universal symbol of friendship and relaxation, yet you seldom see it in a sampler. Lorrie and Harriet often stitch together and have a cup of chai tea. They are also part of a wonderful group that gathers twice a month so she included the words "Friends Count" which is the name of the group, and the first initials of the stitchers. She used fabric and floss colors that she knew her friend Lorrie liked. Also she stitched the letter "K" in the small heart in the bottom right corner as Lorrie's son is an unofficial member of their stitch group. Harriet said it was fun to stitch this sampler and personalize it for her wonderful friend Lorrie.

How lucky and blessed are Harriet and Lorrie to be such good friends. I love the way Lorrie now displays it in her house in a beautiful tray to always remind her of Harriet's friendship.

Thank you again Harriet for sharing these pictures with me for my blog and the wonderful story behind it, it really touched my heart to see what a beautiful symbol of true friendship means.

Blessings, Vilma

HAD TO GIVE INTO TEMPTATION!!!!!!!!

2010-10-08T22:45:00.002-04:00

Sorry I have not had time to blog much, first of all I have been under the weather and there has been some pleasant and unpleasant issues going on in my life. But I just had to post these pictures of the beautiful scissors, needles and scissor fobs that were a great temptation at Anita's little stitches, I just had to have them and finally had to order them. Frankly the pictures does not do justice to how beautiful they are. My favorites are the ones on the lower picture, wow when I received them I could not believe how beautiful and well made they are and also very sharp, they measure six inches and just love them, Anita said that they will be available soon in the color black and asked her to let me know when she received them so I can order it also. Her service is first class and she ships right away, I like that. The black and silver ones and the copper one are also very beautiful and I love the fact of how sharp they are. Also I could not past from ordering some packs of the Bohin needles, just love them and they are a joy to stitch with. I was also very impressed with the two scissor fobs, they were a nice size and had a good weight to them. I also had to order the beautiful gold Santa Claus one, it was a beauty and happy to see how sharp it was, since that is something I always look forward to in a nice pair of scissors.

I had two new designs to release for St. Charles but due to circumstances I was not able to. One is a band sampler called "BEHOLD MY WORK" and the other ones is a A&E called "REMEMBER US" if I cannot release them this year, I will release them in February of next year, will see how certain things turn out, as I said umpleasant issues are hard to deal with but then we have to move on, that is what life is about. Wishing everyone a happy and blessed weekend. Vilma

CAROL SIMS "SHY PHILOMENA"

2010-09-21T19:08:00.065-04:00

My many thanks To Carol Sims from "Sampler Farm" for her kindness in sharing a picture of her finished sampler of "Shy Philomena" as always she did a beautiful job and loved her choice of frame.

I always enjoy looking at all the samplers Carol has stitched through the years http://community.webshots.com/user/samplerfarmer and the way she has them displayed throughtout her beautiful home. The time, dedication and love that she has put into her samplers is a great inspiration to me and to alot of people that know her in the needlework industry.

I would also like to congratulate Carol on the upcoming wedding of her beautiful daughter, she has been very busy and working hard to make everything perfect and beautiful for that special day.

GRANT'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY

2010-09-17T17:18:00.000-04:00

We did a small celebration on Grant's birthday at his house, since we could not do his birthday party since he and my daughter were sick, so I decided to have a cake made for him (yes monkeys, he loves monkeys and his best buddy is is stuffed monkey who sleeps with him every night, he gets very upset when he cannot find his monkey) he was so happy when my husband and I showed up unexpectedly with his cake and his birthday gifts. We ordered two delicious Italian pizzas, sang him happy birthday twice and then he cut his cake and shared it with all of us.

After that he opened his birthday presents all excited and we played with him, that got a big smile out of him even though he was not feeling well, then his big brother Alex entertained us with his guitar, playing a couple of songs for us. There is a gap of 8 years between Alex and Grant. Grant tends to look up to his big brother, he loves his big brother.

So that was our Saturday evening gathering with the family and my husband and I were very blessed and happy to celebrate another birthday with a another grandchild, Thank you God.

TED AND BRENDA SHARING "RESURRECTION"

2010-09-03T03:10:00.000-04:00

I would like to thank Ted and Brenda for their kindness in sharing these pictures with me of the finished band sampler of "Resurrection" and I wanted to share them here for you. Ted and Brenda are stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and he is a Air Force Chaplain there, they are the proud parents of two beautiful children. When "Resurrection" was released Ted fell in love with the design and of course Brenda his beautiful wife wanted to surprise him and stitched it for him. Ted and Brenda are originally from Knoxville, TN and were college sweathearts.

Brenda being a homemaker and having two small children keeps her very busy, but she has always loves to cross stitch and her family is a huge supporter of her needlework. I really loved what she said when she was stitching this design, since it took her a year to finish it. She felt close to God and her husband Ted while working on it, so this piece has so many prayers invested into it while she was working on it. It kept her company and occupied so much while her husband Ted was deployed to the AF. Now if pictures could talk, these do since you can see the big happy smile on Ted while holding his sampler with his beautiful wife Brenda beside him, also very happy and proud of her finished piece and making her husband very happy.

Brenda stitched her piece on 32 count Lambswool with silk fibers. So thank you so much again for sharing these pictures with me so I can share them here. God bless you both and your beautiful children and hoping to see you back in the States next year. Brenda's best friend has suggested to her to stitch "And The Sinned" so she can hang it next to "Resurrection" so Brenda is thinking about it as a future proyect. Brenda has promised to share a picture of Resurrection when she has it framed.

On my side I wanted to say that my model hangs in my bedroon on a side wall by my bed and there is not a day that goes by that I do not take some time to read the verse and thank God everyday for all his blessings and our health. After reading it every morning I feel good and ready to start and face another day in my life.

God bless you all, Vilma

CANNOT BELIEVE I WON SOMETHING

2010-08-18T22:55:00.000-04:00

I was in shock when Wawanna P. from http://www.silverthreadsgoldenneedle.blogspot.com/ sent me an e-mail, saying that I had won, YES I WON something at last, wow I could not believe it!!!!! I sent her my address and this is the beautiful chatelaine I received, it is just so beautiful and believe me when I say that,the picture does not do justice to it. I had to sit down and open the box she sent me and just look at it from every angle and the beautiful work she did with the colors of beads she picked for it. Wawanna please know that I will always treasure this heirloom piece and all the other extra gifts you sent me, I know you did them from your heart and I will always think of you when I use them. God bless you, you are a wonderful and unique lady. hugs, hugs and more hugs and many blessings.

Wawanna also included extra gifts with the chatelaine, this beautiful scissor fob and a bead counter with a needle threader, she did them with the same beads she used in the chatelaine and they both can be clasped to it. Every time I opened a gift box, there was another treasure, I felt like a little girl opening gifts after gift. I really know Wawanna put a lot of love in all these heirloom treasures.

This is a "Laying tool" wow what a beauty it is. It is used primarily in needlepoint where one "lays" the threads so that they look evenly placed. In cross stitch, if there are any fancy stitches one could use it the same way. In using the the laying tool the stitcher can separate several strands of threads, silk, cotton, rayon, etc, just how many depends on the size of the canvas she is working on and the type of stitch you are executing, then you put them back together and in the tapestry needle, secures the thread on the back of the canvas and begin stitching. You lay the threads that is using the tip of the "laying tool" to smooth out the threads so that they ae all lined up and then carefully execute the stitch. That way you get a perfect alignment of the threads which gives a smooth appearance and therefore the most shine from the threads. Also in cross stitch if a stitcher is so careful she wants her threads perfectly linen up for each cross stitch, you can use this instead of the needle for railroading.

Wawanna explained to me that it takes 32 steps to create a "laying tool" and several weeks to make one. She includes 2-3 layers of a primer, 2-4 layers of a paticular color of professional artist paint, 2-3 coats of a special effects like"angel dust"glitters and then 12 layers of a hardening gloss (with sanding in between each layer) so that the laying tool is slick and smooth as possible.There should be nothing there to snag your precious threads.A couple of beads are added to the one end with epoxy glue and it's all ready! your "laying tool"has a special effect and it is pearlized. As with all her products each and every one is individual and unique. Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to explain to you all as she explained it to me since this is something new to me and I will use it and try it out. To me this is a most precious gift and I know Wawanna went out of her way to do everything in the same color to match the chatelaine. She also sent me 24 square diamond shape thread holders, beautifully decorated by her, plus a beautiful card. So not only did I received the chatelaine, but all these other precious heirloom pieces that I will allways treasure from the bottom of my heart from a most wonderful and blessed friend.

ALEX'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY PARTY

2010-08-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

Summer has been super busy in our lives, vacations and more vacations. This week I was able to put together a little birthday party at my house for my grandson Alex, who turned 10 years old (unbelievable how fast our grandchildren are growing) since his mother will do his big birthday party with all his cousin's and friends. His real birthday is August 18, but we wanted to do a little something for him at our house. Also he goes back to school on August the 16 (he really is not ready to go back yet) since he has been enjoying his summer so much.

So here are some pictures I took to share with you all his little birthday party with just us. We had a lot of fun and I fixed him his favorite foods and snacks, but then that is what grandparents do. I had to do everything the night before because he was being very nosey in what we were doing and he loves the Star War theme and I did not want him to see anything until they came over the next day in the evening. So yes I did surprise him and he was surprised.

Many blessings, Vilma

NEW DESIGNS READY TO RELEASE

2010-07-13T17:08:00.095-04:00

Hurray hurray I finally finished packing the two new designs. This one is THEY FOLLOW ME and it was stitched on 38 count Examplar Blend #5 using 16 colors of Weeks Dye Work threads. The stitch count on this design is 165w x 174h.

The grassy area is stitched using half cross stitch to add texture and not volume. I would like to thank Tawny from "Where Victoria Angel's Stitch" for her help in recommending her friend Susan K from NJ to stitch the model. Thank you, Susan for such a wonderful job :) :) Your stitching is beautiful and you got it done very quickly. Also my thanks to Ingrid for picking this frame, I just love it and it goes well with the design, it is 3 1/2 inches wide. Hope you all like this design and your comments mean alot to me since this is what keeps me going :) :)

And then we have GUARDING EDEN, which was stitched on 38 count Examplar Blend #38, using 16 colors of Gentle Art Sampler Threads. The stitch count on this design is 175w x 195h.

I would also like to thank Larene D from NJ, another friend of Tawny's from "Where Victoria Angels Stitch". So thank you, Larene for your beautiful and quick stitching of this model. I would also like my friend Kathy for frogging out A&E since I was not satisfied with the flesh tone color.

You may choose not to fill in the verse or just fill in where it say's THE LORD GOD. That is up to the choice of each stitcher. I love my model the way it looks and it is already hanging on my A&E wall, this frame is also 3 inches wide and to me it does complement the design. I greatly appreciate your comments, since they mean alot to me and to my designing :) :)

Enjoy the rest of the summer and hope all the mother's that have their children on vacation are having a wonderful time with them.

Many blessings to all of you, Vilma

NEW RELEASE "GUARDING EDEN"

2010-07-03T04:58:00.014-04:00

This is my new release for July, it is called "GUARDING EDEN, it was stitched on my 38 count hand-dyed linen, Examplar blend #5 and stitched with 16 colors of GAST. Also Ingrid did a great job in helping me pick this wide frame (3 inches wide) which goes well with the design.

Everything is at the printers right now and will start packing it as soon as they are ready. This model was stitched by Larene of NJ, I was not happy with the flesh tone of A&E so Kathy rip and re-stitched it with another GAST color.

I really love how this design turned out and love the verse, hope to hear your comments about this new design. Stitch area: 175W x 195H

This is the other new design which is called " THEY FOLLOW ME" which is still at the framers and Ingrid and I picked out another wide beautiful frame, but it will not be released until August since I have too much going on right now. This model was stitched on 38 count hand-dyed linen, Examplar blend #5 and stitched with 16 color of WDW. I am on the thinking wagon if I should release it or not.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, as for me I have no idea why my summer got so busy with so much going on, I guess I really am trying to do too much on the outside instead of the inside of the house. Working in the yard, doing things and going places and working on other things that are keeping me busy. Wishing you all a wonderful summer and hope to hear from you all on your comments about this design. Not a very good picture but will post it when it is framed. Frankly I do not know what I am doing posting new releases at 4:30 AM, but then that is what happens when you take long naps since we have company and have been going out alot entertaining them, so when we get home I have been napping in the afternoons lately, so I am guilty now and staying up late, too late since I cannot sleep and we have another busy day tomorrow yikes. Better go to bed now and try to get some sleep so I don't look like a zoobie like in about five or six hours from now, So good morning everyone and blessings, Vilma

PAULE'S "FANCY TULIP"

2010-06-29T20:40:00.014-04:00

I want to thank Paule from France, who is such a wonderful and sweet friend for sending me these pictures of her finished piece of "Fancy Tulip"

Paule stitched this piece for her 10 year old niece who loves insects and collects them. She stitched it on a 30 count Thieffry French linen, using GAST one over one, WOW one over one, I know that design is not small, so my congratulations Paule on your patience in stitching this piece, I hope your niece likes it and give her a big hug from me.

Thank you again Paule for sharing these pictures with me. Sending you lots of hugs.

Blessings, Vilma

WIP OF A.W. 1756

2010-06-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

I have picked up another of my wips that I started years ago WOW I do not even remember when, but I have picked it up again and have been stitching on this reproduction sampler from the SL.

If you go back a couple of post, you will see where I had left off when I put it away. I am working it on 40 count linen that I dyed, since I did not like the linen this kit came with, but I am using the silk threads
which are Au Ver A Soie in the colors Rose Red (4623) and Dark Brown (4136)

This is a Vierlande sampler and what caught my eye was that it was all in one color, with the exception of A&E hair and the serpent in a very dark brown color. I really am so happy that I decided to finish this wip of so many, many years ago. I am enjoying the couple of hours I have available to stitch it. I will post another picture when I finish it.

Blessings to all, Vilma

MY AAWFAA FINISHED AND FRAMED

2010-06-17T16:02:00.006-04:00

I finally picked up my framed AAWFAA and just love it. Ingrid from Michaels has been framing my models for the last 10 years and frankly I do not know what I would do without her, we tend to put our heads together to see what frame would look good with each design and she always picks the right frame that enhances the design, so I would like to thank Ingrid for her great and positive imput in always being there to help me. I do not know what I would do without her.

I love the frame she picked for this design, yes it was a little costly but I really wanted something nice and permanent and in the end when I saw it framed I just fell in love with it.

I have also finished framing one of my new designs which is a A&E and it is called "GUARDING EDEN" I love the way it turned out and also the frame Ingrid helped me picked, I will post a picture of it on my next post and would appreciate your comments on it, since I feel stitchers are my best critics of my designs and I hope you like it.

So I leave you with these pictures and see what you all think, I did cheat a little since I re-graphed the saying, with the same square placing of the verse and did it in plain cross stitch, I also did some color changing that were more to my personal liking.

NOTE: I have added this note since lots of ladies have e-mailed me and ask me some questions regarding this design, yes there are a couple of mistakes in the chart, so what I did was enlarge the picture to a letter size sheet, study the picture and graph and I was able to stitch it more accordingly to the color picture guided by the graph, some examples are the center of the fruits in the darker rose, the tail of the snake not completely graphed, also if you see the color picture and the graph, you will notice some of the insects mising legs or not completely finished. I also noticed the hand of eve rising to the snake which was only outlined, so I just added another finger to eve or you can just omit the middle outlining of that finger. But these little mistakes are very clear to notice and I really enjoyed stitching
this sampler since the filling in goes very quickly while you are whatching some favorite programs on TV.

A surprise birthday for my DH

2010-06-16T21:56:00.002-04:00

It all started with my daughter and I planning a little surprise birthday for my DH, we wanted to have a special cake made for him, so we started looking at some Martha Stewart magazines and we found this square cake but she showed it in white and pink, but we went to our bakery who has always done our family cakes and came up with this.

A three layer chocolate fudge cake mix (super moist) with lots of cream icing, a darker chocolate icing for the ribbons across and a lighter chocolate icing for the ribbon, the tag is made out of sugar and the cake looked like a present box.

We grilled sirloin steaks, chicken breast and salmon marinated in ginger and garlic, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and a nice salad, my husband and the rest of the family had a great day outside where
my son-in-law and daughter were doing all the cooking.

Then we came inside and sang happy birthday to him, but most of all he was so impressed with his cake.
We sat down and just splurged on the delicious cake, which was delicious. I also did three floral arrangements and placed them in diferente areas, so happy birthday my dear wonderful husband.

But what he mostly enjoyed was seeing his grandchildren having a great time in the yard, we played a ball game and threw horseshoes and rings on the pole, had a bubble contest which the boys (that includes him also) had a wonderful time. So my DH I hope you had a wonderful birthday and may God allow us to enjoy many more with you and you with us.

WINNER and more photos

2010-06-07T13:15:00.062-04:00

My grandson Alex was gone this weekend so we got to do the drawing today for the winner of the two Quaker Virtues graphs. I thought I would show you a couple of photos of him drawing the name.
Here he is drawing the name from the hat:

And here he is holding the paper but is too shy to open it:

And lastly here he is holding up the name. And the winner is........Robert

Congratulations, Robert! Please email me at vilma.c.becklin@att.net with your full name and address so I can get these out to you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that commented here and entered the drawing. I wish I could afford to give each of you the charts because you are all winners in my book and in my heart..

And now ...

Here are a few photos of my garden. The flowers are really beautiful this year and all the work I have done is paying off. I hope you enjoy them. This is my favorite place in the morning. I love to come out and have my coffee while looking at my flowers and birds playing in the fountain, eating the seed and watching the squirrels from h*ll! Yes, Sam and Samatha are still here with their friends.

A surprise!

2010-05-27T15:53:00.002-04:00

Well Sam and Samantha have invited guests. There are now 4 of the little devils having a grand time in my garden. I hope they find a new place to play very soon! But I know it is doubtful. Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of my blog I have decided to have a Give-a-way! To enter you just add a comment here. I will put all the names in a hat and have my grandson Alex draw out a name. The winner will received the charts for Quaker Virtues Honesty and Wisdom.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments. It means a lot to me. I forgot to mention that the drawing will be on Sunday, June 6.

The Squirrels from H*ll !!!

2010-05-26T13:09:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time there was a lady who loved to feed the birds and watch them play. She kept her feeders nice and clean and there was always lots of seed for the birds to eat. One day she was looking out at her garden and noticed that there were no birds around the feeders. She went out to see what was wrong and alas the feeders were completely empty. How can this be she thought. I just filled them up last evening. She went to get more seed and filled them nice and full so she could watch the birds. A little later she went once more to the window and still there were no birds but then she saw a movement. There in one of the feeders sat a small gray squirrel eating all the seed. She tried to sh-h-ssh him away but he just looked at her as if she had said nothing at all. Again she tried to sh-h-ssh him away but he continued to ignore her. She went to get something to scare him away when a second squirrel joined the first and they began to play around the feeder and eat all the seed. With each attempt to scare them away their reactions got worse and worse until they were baring teeth and threatening to bite. In spite of her efforts she could not get the squirrels to leave. So finally she lowered one of the feeders close to the ground for them and has now adopted Sam and Samantha--the squirrels from H*ll. :)

Here are a few more photos of my garden. My lilacs are fully blooming and smell so wonderful. I just love them. My roses are also blooming and look great. I have been spending much time outside these last few weeks and it has been very hard work. But the result is so worth it.

Roses from daughter and pictures of finished samplers.

2010-05-12T18:46:00.045-04:00

These are the two dozen Roses that my daughter and son-in-law gave me for Mothers Day. Aren't they beautiful? They came in the most beautiful vase and look and smell wonderful. They came over on Mother's Day and my wonderful, beautiful and sweet daughter handed me this beautiful vase of roses with a very touching card. When I read the card tears just came forward, so thank you my wonderful beautiful dear Jeannette, love you so much. My son Harold called me from Houston also to wish me a happy Mothers Day, it was so nice to talk to him and hear some news about my other two grandchildren, love you son, and I feel very blessed to have two wonderful children, God bless you both.

I also wanted to share with you the link to Carol S's photos. She has done some wonderful pieces and I enjoyed looking at them very much. Hope you do also.
http://community.webshots.com/user/samplerfarmer

This next photo is Deb's Evil Serpent. Deb did a wonderful job stitching this and I love the way she framed it. Thank you Deb for being so kind and sharing a picture of your finished piece, love the frame.

And finally Patti D sent me photos of her And They Sinned. She did a wonderful job on it. It is stitched on 32 ct Belfast linen using the called for GAST Threads. She ommitted the green at the bottom of the design. Thank you Patti for sharing and letting me post pictures of your finished ATS, what a beautiful job you did, and I love the frame you picked.

The frame was done at Fancimats in Littleton, CO.

Thank you all for sharing these photos with me. I love sharing all your finishes and wips on my blog. It is so rewarding to see people actually stitching the pieces that I designed.

I would also like to thank all the wonderful people for their nice comments, they mean alot to me.

Blessing to all, Vilma

MY WIP AND STASH

2010-05-06T12:18:00.008-04:00

This is the latest photo of AAWFAA. My progress is slow because I have been spending so much time working in my garden. But I thought you might enjoy seeing an update.

I don't usually show the back sides but someone was asking about it so I thought I would share that also. I always try to keep my backs looking neat but sometimes it is easier than other times.

I also thought I would share with you some photos of my latest stash, I am a scissor fanatic and I should have never checked with Madstitcher but I did and found these beautiful scissors on her website and had to have them, are they not beautiful!! The top two are a matte pewter look. They are called Middle Ages and the matte Storks. They are very sharp and really feel nice in the hand. I love the black ones, they are the flying witch, the black sheep, the smiling cat and the wide eyed owl and she also has a white sheep scissor but did not have any in stock, so she is ordering me one, I just love those sheep scissors. The big black one, is a very old scissor I had for years, I found it at a garage sale when we lived in TN and love it, I am always looking for old scissors.

I am thrilled that Kathy is now the USA distributor for Gigi R designs. I have some of the Letter Samplers since I am collecting the initials of my husband, children and grandchildren and also mine to stitch one of these days, I am waiting for Gigi to release the "H". Kathy says it should be ready in the next week or so.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. Blessings to each of you who are mothers or have been role models for children. I think this is the most important role we have as women today. and we should celebrate and honor those who have undertaken this job whether through biology or not.

Hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful weather and stitching away, well I am off to the nursery to find some plants I need.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mother's.

Blessings, Vilma

FUN AND WORKING

2010-05-03T22:51:00.050-04:00

Since the club house is still closed and it will not open till the middle of May, we decided to get Grant a little pool and set it up in the back yard, even though it was a little cool for swimming, Grant was having a great time.

So while my husband and I were working hard in the yard, pulling weeds, planting, setting mulch and trimming, we still did our best to keep our eyes on Grant. Later his parents picked him up and we kept on working on the yard, by the time it was 7:30 pm we came into the house dirty, sweaty and tired. We took a bath and had a late dinner and we were so tired that we went straight to bed, but it felt good to fall asleep tired after a hard days work.

Blessings, Vilma

MY OFFICE AND WHERE I WORK

2010-04-24T16:33:00.001-04:00

These are some pictures of my office where I design,
and work 10 to 12 hours a day. As you can all see the
walls are all full of samplers and I have run out of space
to hang any more samplers in my office walls, I have hung
some of my other samplers in my bedroom, family room,
stairs and the kitchen. I wanted to share with you all
where I spend my days.

I love my office my husband gifted me with because I
can work in peace and concentrate on my future designs,
and nobody can bother me since I lock myself in.

I also have my treadmill so I can take some time to
work out when my back and legs get a little stiff, right now
I am doing a overall spring cleaning since it was a mess and
I had to organize everything in order.

Right now I am dedicating my time to my garden and doing
fun things with my family, especially the grandchildren. When
the weather gets warmer we will be going to the beach, camping
and hiking and lot of outdoor entertainment, which I need after
the cold weather and being indoor so much. I need to get some
vitamin D in my body.

Thank you for stopping by and would love to hear your
comments.

Many blessings, Vilma

NEW RELEASE FOR APRIL 2010

2010-04-13T10:30:00.011-04:00

This is the latest of my designs and will be available for purchase the end of next week. It is "The Shepherd and Shepherdess'. It was stitched on 36 count linen using NPI silks. The stitch count is 200w x 252 h. It is by no means a small sampler. It is quite large and takes a bit of time to do. The model was stitched by Kathy Bonham, my wonderful madstitcher. Thank you Kathy for a wonderful, wonderful job, as always. I don't know what I would do without you.

I also want to make a note that the Shepherd and Shepherdess are 82 and 83 stitches in height.

I will not be releasing any more designs until the end of the year and these will be the ones that I already have stitched and framed. I am taking the summer off to spend time with my family and my garden. I will be stitching for myself and enjoying my needlework again.

Thanks to my dear friend, Maria, for sending me this line by Sir Walter Scott. It really speaks to my heart.

God Bless, Vilma

O MANY A SHAFT THAT RANDOM SENT, FINDS MARK THE ARCHER LITTLE MEANT, AND MANY A WORD THAT RANDOM SPOKEN MAY SOOTHE OR WOUND A HEART THAT'S BROKEN ......... Sir Walter Scott

EASTER SUNDAY & DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY

2010-04-11T19:40:00.007-04:00

Easter Sunday was my daughter's birthday and we wanted to do something special for her. So after having an Easter Egg Hunt with the boys we had dinner and a lovely cake with pink dots for Jeannette. Everyone had so much fun. The boys outdid themselves finding the Easter eggs and seeing what was hidden inside. Alex seemed to find all the ones with money in them and Grant just wanted to play with them and the plastic toys in the fountain. He kept coming back over and over again and each time he got wetter and wetter until finally he was Naked! I wanted to share some photos with you and I couldn't decide which ones to post so I ended up posting quite a few. I hope you do not mind. I do love my family so much. The first ones are of Jeannette, her husband Steve, my husband, Harold and Alex and Grant at the dinner table with the cake. The rest are of the Easter Egg Hunt. I hope you enjoy them.

God Bless, Vilma

O MANY A SHAFT THAT RANDOM SENT, FINDS MARK THE ARCHER LITTLE MEANT, AND MANY A WORD THAT RANDOM SPOKEN MAY SOOTHE OR WOUND A HEART THAT'S BROKEN ......... Sir Walter Scott

SHARING AND BLESSINGS

2010-04-04T13:45:00.000-04:00

Thought I share some other samplers that I have stitched
through the years, the top one and the bottom one are from
SD and I stitched them as birth samplers for my son and
daughter, the other two I wish I could remember who they
are from since I stitched them years ago.

What a wonderful week I had in spending time with my
family, wow it was just so nice to relax and do other things.

Right now I am getting ready to hide the eggs for my grandchildren
who are coming over for a easter egg hunt, wow will they have
fun. Also fixing a early dinner since it is also my daughters birthday
and she does not know about it, I had a beautiful red velvet cake
made for her and she will be so surprised, but then that is what
mothers and grandmothers do. I will post some pictures later.

I would like to wish you all a very blessed Easter on celebrating
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessings to all, Vilma

My wip of AWFAA and some goodies I got.

2010-03-20T17:18:00.025-04:00

This is my latest wip photo of All Was for An Appil from the Scarlet Letter.
I am so happy to have finished stitching those trees :) which by the way I
change the color to an overdyed since I wanted the tree to have more color.

I still have to outline the parrot by Adam's side and the right clouds. I am
really enjoying myself in having time to stitch on my wips. I also change the
color on the snake, I went with a darker shade of grey blue.

Now I would like to share with you some of my new stash I just received from Kathy at madstitcher.com. I am so excited with everything. I got seven new pairs of scissors--four of them are the antique reproduction style and I just love them. The other three pairs were the new Kelmscott Little Gems in primitive black, the Steweb scissors and the Elizabeth I scissors. I also got some new Mother of Pearl Thread Winders and Thread Drops and the lovely new Hearts Afire Needleminder. Also, Kathy just introduced me to these wonderful Thread Savers from Rosewood Manor. They are made of wood and are very very smooth and they will not snag our wonderful silk fibers. I have simply fallen in love with them!

I also got The Village Square Sampler from Samplers Remembered, two new charts from The Marking Sampler and five new charts from Threads Through Time! I feel like a child on Christmas morning! I cannot wait to begin winding my silks and stitching one of my new charts.

I would also like to tell you that The MadStitcher now has a message board on her website and I would love to see you all over there so we can talk and share. You have to register to avoid spammers but it is easy to do. Hope to see you all there.

Cathies's LE NEEDLECHARMER Finish

2010-03-18T15:40:00.003-04:00

Marie was kind enough to send me a photo of Cathie's Needlecharmer all finished and framed. It is so lovely. She did a wonderful job on the stitching and the framing just sets it off beautifully. Thank you Cathie and Maria for sharing this beautiful photo with me. I just love all of Cathie's beautiful samplers.

New WIP Photos from Kiki

2010-03-15T12:48:00.002-04:00

Kiki has really been stitching and has sent me more photos of her wips.

This is Trinity: All she has left to do is finish the border. Isn't it gorgeous? Kiki you are doing a fabulous job on this one.

And here is the beginning of her Quaker Virtues Project. Kiki has chosen 9 of the Quaker Virtues designs and is stitching them on 1 large piece of fabric. She chose not to do Faith as it has a slightly different stitch count (although this is easily corrected) and is doing the other nine alphabetically--Honesty, Humility, Love, Patience, Peace, Prosperity, Obedience, Strength, and Wisdom. 3 across x 3 down. She is leaving 10 stitches (20 threads) between each section making this a total of 440 x 470. She is using 36 ct fabric 1 over 2. So the total size for this will be 24.5 x 26.2 plus whatever margin she leaves when finishing it.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo but she has gridded out all nine squares so she can get her placement right. I cannot wait to see how this comes out. Several people have mentioned doing this but this is the first person I know of who has actually started it. Thank you so much, Kiki, for sharing your beautiful work with us. Please keep us updated.

FINISHED PIECES FROM CATHIE OF CANADA

2010-03-04T02:46:00.007-05:00

Maria from Canada sent me these three wonderful pictures
of her friend Cathie, also from Canada of her finished samplers.

The top one is "Stella Jones 1811" which she stitched it on 32 count
Belfast linen with GAST, the second picture is "1831 Quaker Samplar"
which is also a antique reproduction, she stitched it on 32 count Flax
linen with DMC threads.

The bottom one is "Black Dahlia" she stitched it on 32 count Flax linen
using DMC threads, but most of all I love what she did. Cathie did
her own verse and added a beautiful silver cross charm WOW that
really caught my eye since it looks so beautiful and personalized it
to her liking. Great stitching Cathie and love what you did.

Maria also sent me pictures of Cathie's wall of samplers that she has
stitched through the years and every sampler on that wall was too
beautiful to describe. Thank you Maria and Cathie for your kindness
and generosity in sharing pictures of your finished samplers with me.

God bless, Vilma

FINISHES, WIP, NEWS AND A STORY

2010-02-07T04:26:00.132-05:00

Paule in France was kind enough to send me a photo of her TRACY'S CAT SAMPLER stitched 1 over 1 on 30 ct grey linen. Great job Paule, and thank you for sharing it with me, I also love the silver charm she added, thank you again Paule in France for your kindness in sharing your finished piece with me, your work is beautiful.

Also my thanks again to Theresa B. who was so kind in sharing another of her finished pieces with me, she is such a wonderful stitcher and I love how her QUAKER BLACK SWAN turned out. Theresa is such a wonderful and sweet lady and mother to 10 wonderful children, 5 girls and 5 boys (how blessed can she be with such a beautiful family) you can see her family at http://www.crosstitchcottage.wordpress.com/ and read more about her children. God bless you Theresa.

Maria sent me this photo from her friend Cathie. It is her wip progress on THE NEEDLECHARMER, which is a limited edition graph. She is using DMC floss and it is looking beautiful! Great job, Cathie G. from St. George, Ontario, hope you share a picture when you
have finished it and thank you again Maria and Cathie.

Now for some wonderful news.

My friend Kathy has finally gotten her website up and running and it is wonderful. You won't have to keep scrolling through her blog to find what you need. Check it out at MadStitcher.com Great job Kathy and my congratulations on your new website. Also she will be having a message board for all stitchers to share their work, designs, linens, threads and post pictures of their work. What a wonderful idea for Kathy to give us a forum so stitchers from around the world can make new friends and comments about their love for cross stitching.

AND NOW A STORY

Anne from Gloriana Threads sent me some samples of her beautiful new Florimell Silk, hand-dyed Au Ver A Soie, brand Soie d' Alger, she is doing all her colors in the new Florimell line, they are just beautiful and great for stitching with one strand on 30, 32, 34, 35 and even 36 count linen. Now to stitch a design with them.

She also shared her story why her company is called "GLORIANA THREADS". Gloriana is the name of the queen of the Fairies in Sir Edmond Spenser's poem "The Faerie Queene" an incomplete epic poem published in England in two parts in 1590 and 1596. This allegorical poem glorifies Queen Elizabeth I, who was known as Gloriana for the rest of her reign. Florimell, who represents beauty and purity, is another female character in the poem. Poor Florimell was unlucky at love, the one man she fell in love with in the poem was not in love with her. Thank you Anne for sharing this story with me.

NEW RELEASES FOR FEBRUARY 2010

2010-01-23T01:38:00.032-05:00

WALK BESIDE ME

This is one of my new designs that I am releasing this month, model
was stitched on 36 count linen with NPI silks and one color of
Gloriana silk threads. On some of the colors of NPI you will need 2 and
3 skeins.

The design area is 244w X 183h

SHY PHILOMENA

This is my second design to be released in February also. It is stitched on 36 count hand-dyed linen, with NPI and one shade of Gloriana Silks. You will need
on some colors 2 skeins of NPI silks. Philomena herself is 105 stitches tall!

The design area: 195w X 181h

I would like to thank Kathy Bonham (madstitcher) for her wonderful work in stitching these two designs, as always she has done a beautiful job. I really enjoyed designing these two new designs and hope you like them.

God Bless, Vilma

Happy Birthday to Me! And Happy winning to You!

2010-01-16T18:34:00.001-05:00

I have had a really hard time choosing the winners of the Trinity contest. All of you gave such wonderful answers and I hope each of you will get to stitch this design someday. I finally put all the names in a pot and let my husband draw names out!

Trinity has always had a special place in my heart. My grand-daughter was named Trinity by her mother because she survived breast cancer at the age of eighteen and owes it all to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I designed this sampler for her.

So.... since it is my birthday I decided to give away more than one chart! I have always believed it is better to give than receive. So the winners are:

Deb W
Zandra S
Jill K

Please send Kathy an email at madstitcher@charter.net with your mailing address as she has kindly agreed to mail them out for me. I have been under the weather with a sinus infection and just got up to go to my daughter's house for my birthday dinner.

Be sure to keep checking in. You never know what I might come up with next. The month of May will be the first anniversary of my Blog so I will be doing something really special to celebrate that for sure.

Some gifts, and SPECIAL "NEWS"

2010-01-06T00:18:00.038-05:00

I was very blessed to receive some gifts for Christmas from some very special ladies. First is the package from Angel who is one of my Stitching Sisters. She gave me some beautiful glass headed pins, some John James and Piecemaker Needles, some Udderly Smooth hand cream and some chocolates that are no longer here. Then Tracy of Tracy's Treasures another of my Stitching Sisters gave me a beautiful beaded scissors fob made from semi-precious stones and highlighted with a dimpled pearl dyed to match. And my dear Madstitcher Kathy gave me another beautiful fob of royal purple Swarovski Crystals and tiny bumblebees and a gorgeous counting pin/lapel pin that I just love.

I also received from Linda, another friend, some pieces of her hand-dyed linens, in the colors Quaker Tan and Quaker Brown, they are absolutely lovely colors. She also included some colors of her hand-dyed threads in the colors she knows I love.

Linda and her husband own the company "Stellar Fibers" they started dyeing fabric and threads not
long ago. If you are interested in her fibers this is her website http://home.earthlink.net~stellarfibers/fiber.html and her email is stellarfibers@earthlink.net. Thank you Linda for such a wonderful gift.

NOW FOR THE NEWS!!!

I think we need to start the New Year off with another giveaway! Since JANUARY 16 IS MY BIRTHDAY instead of receiving birthday presents I am going to give one away. On January 16th I will give away a copy of "TRINITY" which has a very special meaning to me. So please share your comments about why Trinity would be special to you. We will choose the winner and post it on my birthday (lol lol another birthday)

Last I would like to thank Jolene and Melissa for asking about the samplers below, the first sampler is an antique, but it is not dated or signed, it is from the late 1860's or 1880's, I have received a couple of e-mails to reproduce it. Fanny Osborn is from the "Schoolhouse Samplings, the Adam and Eve is also an antique sampler in my collection, along with the last one, which is a Pennsylvannia Dutch sampler, and then there is the one from "Sheepish Antiques" of Betty Wood 1808 that I stitched. Again thank you Jolene, April Mechelle and Melissa for your kind comments.

God Bless, Vilma

DEB WOHLLEBEN "ATS"

2010-01-05T09:00:00.002-05:00

Deb Wohlleben from Pewaukee, WI. was kind enought to share
some pictures of her "ATS" she said she has many memories within
this piece, she said that this sampler with the Biblical stories really
appealed to her and she loves samplers. Deb is now working on
the grass of the bottom part. She stitched her model with the fibers
called for.

We have exchanged some e-mails and not only is she beautiful on
the outside but also on the inside, what a beautiful person she is.

Thank you so much Deb for sharing these pictures for my blog. Deb
is also a Senior Consultant with Creative Memories (ID#11719458)
please check out all of her 2009 Events along with Features, Promotions
and more at www.mycmsite.com/dwohlleben

SHARING SOME MORE SAMPLERS

2009-12-31T21:47:00.002-05:00

It will soon be the year 2010 WOW how time flies, it
is December 31st 2009 and it is 9:42PM and posting my
last post of the year, since hopefully I will be so busy
with new designs coming up for next year and graphing
new ones also. My husband and I had a quiet dinner and
will probably go to bed early since I will be taking a
couple of days off to relax and take a much need rest since
these holidays left me exhausted.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and
may it bring you all health, peace, joy, happiness and many,
many blessings.

God bless you all, Vilma

OUR CHRISTMAS STORY

2009-12-26T17:46:00.005-05:00

We had a blessed, happy and joyful Christmas, on Dec. 24th
my daughter Jeannette invited us to a wonderful Christmas late
dinner, and what a grand dinner she had fixed, she is a very
caring and thoughtful daughter who tends to include us on all
the special occasions of her family. When dinner was over, we
went into the family room to enjoy desert and a cup of coffee,
talk and hear Christmas music, The boys were all excited about
these special days since they were looking forward to the next
day. They went outside to put food for the deers and a plate of
cookies and milk for Santa. We left around 11:00pm to go back
home. I forgot to mention that it had started to rain since 6:00pm
that day, and well, it was still raining when we got home and it rained
all through the night.

The next morning (Dec.25) it was still raining and cloudy and
my daughter called and woke us up at 8:00am (we were still sleeping)
and told us to get up and come to her house since she had fixed
breakfast (a very nice breakfast) so we got out of bed, comb our
hair, brushed our teeth and just put on a coat over our pajamas and
ran out the house and it was still raining lol lol lol. Well, when
we got there we saw two excited little boys and lots of gifts under
the tree and they just wanted breakfast to be over so we could
start opening the gifts. We had a wonderful time. My husband and
I just sat back (I was still half asleep) to see the joy and excitement
in Alex and Grant faces. Frankly Grant who is 15 months old did not
know what it was all about, but he joined the excitement.

Then the opening of the presents started, goodness, goodness, what
a joy it was to see them tearing those packages and seeing what they
got. They were so happy. We started putting toys together and playing
with them (thank goodness I was on my second cup of coffee). But
it was worth it to be blessed and share these special moments in
the children's lives, at least for grandparents.

We finally left around 5:00 pm exhausted and anxious to get back
home and take a long nap. We are so thankful to God for letting us
share family time with our family, since for me Christmas is more
about the birth of little Jesus.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your parents, children
and grandchildren since that is what Christmas is all about, family, love,
joy and peace.

Gold bless all of you with health and happiness. Vilma

DECORATING WITH SANTA'S

2009-12-23T00:19:00.010-05:00

I would not feel happy if I did not put some of my santa claus collections through the house, I have been collecting them for 22 years now, and still do when I still find those antique ones or the ones that are sculpted by hand or carved from diferent kind of woods.

I have also put out my lighted churches that I love so much, some I have bought and some have been a gift, they are collector pieces and I have had them for years, sometimes I leave them all year round since I love looking at them, especially all lighted up at night.

Last but not least a picture of my husband and me, that was taken
at a friends house that had a little Christmas gathering.

So with this post my friends, I want to wish you all a most blessed
Christmas, God bless all of you and give you good health.

Merry Christmas, Vilma

A SMALL FAMILY GATHERING

2009-12-17T01:23:00.002-05:00

It is kind of a tradition that during every Friday of December,
I fix a nice dinner for the kids and then we sit around and
and let the grandchildren open one gift. This year it is Grant's
first Christmas that he will be enjoying and is enjoying it
tremendeously, since last year he was 3 months old and at
that small age they do not know what is going on. This year
he has been so excited about looking at all the houses that
are decorated outside with all kind of lights, santas, deers,
snowmen, that his little head just goes back and forth, he is
having a wonderful time.

I think he is thinking what is going on? what are all these lights?
what are these packages that I am opening with goodies inside?
well I kind of say to myself, Christmas is about children having
a good time, about family getting together, about love and hormony
and mostly about all the blessings God gives us.

We are going through hard times with the economy being so bad,
so we give thanks to God for allowing the gathering of families
and good friends.

God bless you all, Vilma

Sharing more of my samplers.

2009-12-16T03:54:00.002-05:00

I thought I would share some more of my finished samplers that
I have stitched through the years and are hanging on my family
room wall. I love to put some of my finished pieces on certain
areas around the house, especially where I can see them.

I starting stitching 28 years ago and fell in love with mainly samplers,
we were living in Tennessee and my children were small and going to
school, we lived in a small town and frankly there was not much to
do. One day we went to a Town in Alabama and there were a couple
of cross stitch shops, so I went in and the walls were full of cross
stitched pictures of everything you can inmagine, but my eyes were
drawn to samplers, and from there on I got hooked on samplers and
I still love stitching them. Below are some that I stitched years ago
and are from Sheepish designs.

Christmas is right around the corner, and I will be posting lots and
lots of pictures of family that I have not been able to post, since I have
been getting new designs ready for February 2010, two of them have
been stitched for some months. I have framed and photograph them and
will be sharing pictures of them later.

I always like to take the month of December off, since I love sharing
that time with family and friends. We have been so busy decorating
the front of the house and also inside. During this month we love to have
a special dinner every Friday and thank God for all the blessings he
gives us, especially health. We always say a special prayer for our
soldiers who are fighting. God bless them all and keep them safe and
bring them all home soon.

Well I finished all my Christmas shopping, all the gifts are pack and under
the tree, cards have been mailed, so maybe I can do a little stitching for
myself.

A finish and a wip from Sylvia

2009-12-12T01:23:00.002-05:00

Sylvia was kind enough to share a finished piece of her
sampler Dames Boarding School, which turned out so
beautiful, thank you Sylvia.

Sylvia also sent me a picture of her wip of ATS, which
she stitched on while recuperating after surgery, since she
had problems and it took a while for her incision to heal.
But thank God she is doing well now. Everyday she would
set a goal to stitch a little motif and it gave her something
to look forward to, she found joy and sometimes humor in
all the little aspects of the design. She is stitching it on 40
count linen, using silk since she wanted some solids as well
as some variagated threads. She also expressed how much
this piece helped in her recuperation.

Thank you so much Sylvia for your kindness in sharing these
pictures with me and hope you are feeling well, looking forward
to seeing more of your progress or finished piece.

Melissa's Windmill Sampler

2009-12-11T23:34:00.069-05:00

Melissa was kind enough to share with me a picture
of her finished piece of "The Windmill Sampler, she
stitched her piece on 32 count Nightingale linen by Birds
Of A Feather, floss mostly what was recommended and
added a few of her own. She added GA Old Hickory
for the windmill, Chamomile for the lower branches and
Pumpkin Patch to replace Old Brick. She also swapped
out colours as she felt like it and what worked against the
linen she used, she modified and added some motifs of
her own.

Thank you Melissa for your kindness in sharing a picture
of your finished sampler, it turned out beautiful and loved
the idea of adding other motifs to it.

My WIP of AND ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL

2009-12-06T12:19:00.015-05:00

Here is where I am with my my wip of AAWFAA, not a very
good picture since we have been having so many cloudy days,
but I wanted to share a wip picture of it since I was able to finish
Eve, so Adam would not be alone for the holidays. Also some
more of my personal samplers that I have stitched thru the years.

Been so busy since Thanksgiving and now, since we have been
decorating outside and putting up the christmas tree for the grandchildren,
since they would be dissapointed if we didn't. Christmas for me is
more about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Making list of
gifts for the family, what we are going to cook, turkey or ham, we
are kind of tired of turkey since we did that for Thanksgiving and
had a lot of left overs for the week, so I guess we will go with ham
this year. I am sending out my Christmas cards, lol lol there just
so much to do and the list never ends.

Have been busy graphing new designs, I have two new samplers already
framed and photograph, I will post pictures of them hopefully in
January, to be released in February, Mindy is working on a band sampler
and Kathy on another one and I am stitching on one also.

Many blessings to you all.

More of my personal finished samplers.

2009-11-24T00:00:00.005-05:00

This is my finished sampler of Maria Dale 1835,
it is a simple sampler with a lovely verse, the graph
of this design is on volume #1 of Sampler and Antique
Needlework magazine, it is all stitched in one color
of thread.

France F. c1820, from Sheepish Antiques, I stitched
this reproduction on a 40 count linen with AVS silks.
I really enjoyed stitching this reproduction sampler and
the colors are lovely. I cannot believe that I stitched
this sampler 1988 wow how time flies.

MARY ANN HUTTON 1801

This is one of my favorite antique reproduction
samplers that I have stitched. I bought it years ago
as a limited signed edition kit from the Scarlet Letter,
I really enjoyed stitching this and it hangs with pride
and joy in my home. It is very rare to find a Christmas
theme antique sampler and the overall design and
verse really attracted me to it.

Pictures of wips of Cathie G. and Theresa B.

2009-11-23T03:23:00.009-05:00

Maria S. sent me a scan of The Needlecharmer that her friend Cathie G. is working on. She is stitching it on 32 count Zweigart Vintage linen.

Thank you so much Cathie for your wip picture, it is looking so beautiful and I appreciate your kindness in sharing it with me.

Theresa B sent me her wip photo of Quaker Virtues HONESTY. Thank you so much for your kindness in sharing your wip with me, it is looking beautiful. I love it when people share their finished or wip pictures of my designs. I am so blessed.

SOME MORE PICTURES OF MY PERSONAL STITCHING SAMPLERS

2009-11-12T01:32:00.068-05:00

This one is EC 1774, which I stitched a long time ago, I used AVS silks on 40 count linen. All these samplers I stitched them many years ago, but I wanted to share them with you all a little at a time, since I started stitching 28 years ago and fell in love with mainly samplers. They all hang on my walls in the office and I enjoy seeing what I have stitched through the years when I am working.

This is Elsa Nebel 1907, it is an old sampler that was a gift from a very dear friend. I have been thinking of reproducing it one day.

This is one of the first antique reproduction samplers I stitched from the Scarlet Letter. What attracted me to this sampler was the history that came with it.

Elizabeth Irwin was the mother of Benjamin Harrison, the nation's 23rd president, when she was 14 years old, Elizabeth and her sister Jane aften visited their aunt's home in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was on one of these visits they met their future husbands, the Harrison brothers. Jane Married William Henry Harrison Jr., and was mistress of the White House during her father-in-law's brief presidency (1841). Elizabeth married John Scott Harrison in 1831. They had ten children, including Benjamin, who became President in 1889. Elizabeth never lived to see her son in the White House.
She died in 1850, at age 40, after 19 years of marriage.

I wrote the history of this reproduction and put it in a white envelope and taped it on the back of my sampler, so when whoever gets it, will know why I stitched this simple alphabet sampler and know that is was the history that attracted me to it. I stitched it on 35 count linen with three colors of AVS.

This is also a antique reproduction, Lucy Minton 1844, I stitch this one years ago, but I have forgotten who reproduced it. It has two kind of specialty stitches and it was a joy to stitch, I did mine in 40 count linen with AVS.

This one is a small reproduction sampler from Threads Through Time, Catharine Louisa Chamberlain 1844, it only uses three colors of threads, I did mines in 40 count linen with AVS.

SARAH AND HER DIFFICULT JOURNEY

2009-11-12T00:27:00.001-05:00

This is my niece Sarah. Sarah was diagnosed with a brain tumor called Gliosarcoma. Because of where it was located it could not be removed, but after many different surgeries and treatments Sarah went into remission at the age of 15. At the age of 17 she was put on an experimental treatment along with 5 other little girls. Four of them died and Sarah suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed. After many years of therapy, Sarah has relearned how to walk with a brace on her leg and her arm is kept in a sling. Sarah is 25 years old now and is still on therapy and many medications. She speaks clearly but sometimes she has to stop and think before she can verbalize her thoughts. She is still on her journey dealing with her cancer. We thank God everyday that she can live as normal a life as can be expected.

Will Sarah ever be able to live as a normal young woman? Only God has the answer to that. But we are blessed that she is doing well for now and helps children in a cancer hospital when she is able to do so. Our niece is an angel on earth. She is so brave and strong that it amazes me what we can learn from her after all she has been through.

I designed this sampler for her when she began this long journey and am so glad that she is still here to enjoy it. Sarah's Journey is a reminder to all of us that life is a journey and how we live it and handle the obstacles makes us the person we are.

Contest Winner

2009-11-12T00:24:00.004-05:00

And the winner of The Blessing is: Wawanna

Congratulations, Wawanna! Please email Kathy at madstitcherdesigns@gmail.com and give her your mailing information.

Edited to add: I just got the sweetest email from Wawanna and wanted to share with you what she said:

"Oh my, thank you ever so much. I just recently discovered all your beautiful designs and made a long wish list. I love the way you glorify the Lord in so many of your designs. I have been aware of "And they Sinned" for quite a while, but never checked out all your other charts till I found your blog and was blown away! This was at the top of the wish list! You are so sweet to have conducted the contest. You know this is the first thing in my life that I have won (and I am 65 years old). WOW! Talk about enjoying the design - I most certainly will!"

Wawanna, I am so glad to hear from you. Enjoy your stitching and many blessings, Vilma

A new Contest! "THE BLESSING"

2009-11-04T13:09:00.003-05:00

Kathy and I have been talking and we decided to do another contest. With our thanksgiving just around the corner we thought it would be the perfect time for this one. This time just post a comment and answer this question. What are you thankful for? Kathy will again draw the winner on November 12th so be sure to post your name and email address with your comments so we can contact you. The winner will receive The Blessing .

MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU ALL AND YOUR FAMILIES ON THIS THANKSGIVING DAY.

We are also still looking for photos of your wips or finished Examplar Dames or Examplars From the Heart designs. So if you have any please send them to me. I would love to share them here on my blog for everyone to see.

Kathy P. MERMAID AND THE SEA

2009-11-04T13:00:00.052-05:00

My many thanks to Kathy P. from NY for sharing with
me some pictures of her finished Mermaid And The Sea.

I just love the way she framed it, using three mats, the
top mat has painted fishes in gold, blue and red, birds,
starfish and seaweed. Thank you so much Kathy for sharing
with me your beautiful finish of Mermaid And The Sea,
I also love the delicate gold brass frame she picked. Wow
Kathy, what a work of art you did with framing your finished
piece.

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR

2009-11-04T13:00:00.051-05:00

This is Breast Cancer Awareness month and I wanted to share this story with you. This is my daughter-in-law Prudence, she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 18. This year she celebrates 15 years as a breast cancer survivor. The photo was taken shortly after the completion of her chemotherapy. She lives in Houston and every year she participates in the Walk for the Cure. She has been so blessed by God and yes miracles happen.

Prudence is the mother of two of my grandchildren, Haven and Trinity and they live in Houston. I wish Prudence a wonderful 3 day journey walk, and that God keeps blessing her as a cancer survivor.

As for me I am on my 8th year Kidney cancer remision, I also feel so thankful to God for being there for me and for all his blessing and giving me the strenght to keep moving on, I have so much to feel blessed and thank God every night and morning for blessing my life with a new day, to do what I can do and mostly to appreciate my time with my dear husband, children and grandchildren.

Some More Samplers

2009-10-28T02:57:00.010-04:00

WIP OF THE YELLOW HOUSE SAMPLER
This is another of my wips that I took out, I also started this one years ago, but I want to finish stitching it afterI finish AAWFAA. This is a oop design from Sheepish Designs and it was designed by Cindy Bradford years ago when she was with SD.

I started this on a 35 count linen with AVS threads. Back then I started collecting all the SD and I am glad I have them all since since the very first one was released, since now they are out of print and there are still a couple of them that I want to stitch.

ELIZA LEE 1841 ANTIQUE SAMPLER
I wanted to share one of my five antique samplers that I own, this one is from Eliza Lee and it is dated 1841. It was stitched on a 55 gauze linen with silk threads and it has a very nice verse. The reason I bought it was because it was dated with the name of the stitcher.

The verse reads: We seek a rest beyond the grave, In everlasting day, Through floods and flames the passage lies, But Jesus guides the way. I might reproduce it one day.

ELIZABETH BROBST 1819

This is another of my personal stitched samplers, that I enjoyed stitching, I stitched it on a handwoven linen from the Scarlet Letter with AVS silk fibers, it has some specialty stitches, especially one over one, but frankly I do not remember who reproduced it, since I stitched it about 14 years ago.

AGNES ELAND HICK 1858
This is another of my personal finished samplers, it
is a Quaker reproduction and only called for three
colors of threads. I stitched it on 45 count linen using
AVS silks, I stiched it a long time ago, but I have been
looking for the graph to see who reproduced it, but I
cannot find it. I know it is somewhere, oh well I guess
it will show up one of these days.

A STITCHING BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-10-26T16:51:00.023-04:00

On Saturday we had a Stitching Birthday Party get together for Kathy the Madstitcher and her friend Angel. We gathered at Kathy's house and there were 8 of us there including our honorary member of the Sisterhood, Jason, Kathy's wonderful and delightful son. I finally got to meet all of Kathy's friends that she talks about all the time. There was Kiki, Angel, Tracy, Angela, Bunny, Kathy, and myself along with Jason who tried to hide and stay out of the way but we kept needing him to move things, carry things and, of course, have birthday cake with us. He really should know that a good looking man can't get too far away from a bunch of women! We had a wonderful meal cooked by Kiki and Kathy and then the cake. I brought Kathy's birthday cake with me since I have a fabulous bakery near me who
still makes the genuine buttercream frosting! It was sinfully good and we all enjoyed it--even though we shouldn't have. We then had presents and lots and lots of laughter. We enjoyed lots of sharing of wips and finished pieces. Tracy showed us a wonderful sampler she had stitched and made into a 25th Anniversary sampler (Jardin d'jour by Needlemania) where Kathy had charted out the personalization for it Bunny was crocheting a wonderful afghan as a gift for a friend. Angela was making a Towel cake for a wedding shower and it turned out simply fabulous. Then she started making a "Marge Simpson" wig for Halloween. She was so funny in it. She promised to send us all photos of herself on Saturday night. Angel was stitching on an autumn sampler that was done in beautiful vibrant fall colors. I look forward to seeing it finished. Kathy has been suffering from Shingles and wasn't feeling very well but she managed to do a bit of stitching on the casket she is doing. It looks wonderful and I hope she will share it with us all when she finishes it. She is so talented! Kiki was working on Trinity and I was so glad to see it in person! She is doing a fantastic job of it. It is so much prettier in real life than any photos can show. I did bring my AAWFAA and show it to the group. I do love it so much.

I made Kathy show me some of her finished pieces and was very impressed with the cabinet she has displaying all her smalls and boxes. I managed to get a picture of it where the flash didn't distort it too much. o I thought I would show it to you so you could see how talented Kathy really is.
Don't you think it is wonderful? She has done several boxes and I just love the Mermaid Box and the pin keep, scissors pouch and fob. There are so many beads and sparklies on it and it is finished inside with Dupioni Silk. I just love it! I stayed until almost 8:00pm just talking, laughing, and getting to know all my new "sisters". They are such a wonderful group of ladies. I cannot wait till the next time we get together. Maybe we will actually get more stitching done then.

By the time I got home I was so tired. I just wanted to go to bed. But it was a good tired. I enjoyed meeting my new friends. Even my husband, Harold, commented on how nice everyone is and he wants me to continue to get together with them whenever I can.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHY AND ANGEL, LOVE YOU ALL.

GRANT'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-10-25T21:20:00.020-04:00

Here are some pictures I took on Grant's 1st little birthday
party, since it was just the family and it was on a Monday,
we decided to make some noise for him and we did a little
barbecue party, Alex played the guitar and we sang happy
birthday to him. Grant had alot of fun since we all fussed
over him to make him feel important on his special day, we
all had alot of fun and Grant as you can see, really enjoyed
eating his cupcake, his way and all by himself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BABY GRANT.

PROGRESS ON AAWFAA

2009-10-25T16:22:00.002-04:00

This is another progress picture of All Was For An Appil,
I have not been able to stitch on it as much as I would like,
but at least I got part of the tree almost done and need to
stitch Adam's hair. I am really enjoying stitching this piece
and it was a shame that I had it as a wip for so many year,
but I have decided to get all my wips finished that I have had
to put aside for so long. Between house work, yard work,
laundry, babysitting (I love doing that) and working, time
just seems to fly by so quick, that before I know it, I am so
tired that I need to give my body some rest and seek my bed.

KIKI'S "TRINITY" UPDATE

2009-10-22T03:44:00.009-04:00

Kiki has very generously sent me more wip photos of her TRINITY. She is coming along with it especially since this is her lunchtime project at work. Her stitching is just beautiful. Thank you, Kiki, for sharing your photos with us. A group of stitching friends
will be gathering at Kathy's (madstitcher) house this Saturday
to celebrate her birthday. I will have the honor to finally meet
Kiki at the all day birthday stitching party.

MINDY G. A FINISH AND A WIP

2009-10-19T18:32:00.002-04:00

Mindy G. was kind enough to send me photos of her work to share with you. First is Love The Truth. She said that this was one of her all time favorite samplers.

Next is her wip of Resurrection. Mindy does such beautiful work. Thank you Mindy, for sharing these wonderful photos with us.

NEW RELEASE FOR OCTOBER

2009-10-19T16:56:00.001-04:00

This is 'ANGELS AMONG US' my new release for
the end of October. The design was stitched on 40
count linen with silk fibers. My many thanks to Mindy
Gooding for stitching the model and her great stitching.

Stitch count: 250w X183h

I dedicated this design to my nieces Tiffany and Sarah.

Some of The Stitcherhood designs

2009-10-14T14:22:00.022-04:00

Just a picture of some of the graphs that I bought from Maria
"The Stitcherhood" since I liked them because I could do
some quick stitching for friends and families. You can check
out her other designs at http://www.thestitcherhood.com/ and check
out her blog http://thestitcherhood.blogspot.com/ for her nice
little freebies that she offers once in a while, she is a real sweet
person and a new friend.

This is another of my personal stitched samplers, it is from
Sheepish Designs and as you can see from the date on the
sampler, I stitched it a long time ago.

This is also one of my personal stitching samplers, it is also
from Sheepish Designs Antiques, but I personalized it
with my name and the date I finished it, so yes I have been
stitching for a while now and I have always loved samplers
since I like to display them in my home. You will notice
that this design came out more wide than the original one,
but that is because I used unevenweave hand woven linen
from the Scarlet Letter.

2009-10-10T07:21:00.010-04:00

ANN GREANWALT SAMPLER

This is another of my personal stitched samplers, it is from the Scarlet Letter. I stitched this sampler on 40 count linen with AVS silks, it included some specialty stitches. Instead of using Ann Greanwalt name, I personalized it with my name.

ELIZABETH MANSFIELD 1792

This is my finished sampler of Elizabeth Mansfield 1792, that I stitched years ago, I used 40 count hand-dyed linen and AVS silks. I love this sampler for the history since it was stitched by a lady in waiting of the queen during the reign of king George III, which you can see his initials between the crown on the cushion. This design is from the Scarlet Letter.

SAMPLER WALL

These are some samplers that I have stitched thru the years and I just wanted to share them with you, since not only do I design samplers but I love to stitch other samplers also. I will keep posting pictures of my stitched pieces and also of some antique samplers I have. I wish you all a happy weekend and may you
stitch alot.

ABIGAIL GOULD 1796

2009-10-06T20:32:00.004-04:00

This one is from the Scarlet Letter, I bought it as a kit with silk fibers. I really loved it since it is a more modern version of Adam and Eve under the tree of life, with the exception that instead of them being naked, they are dressed.

PHEBE TREE 1823

2009-10-06T20:25:00.004-04:00

I want to start sharing with you all, some of my finished personal samplers little by little since I have received lots of e-mails of people asking me, what have I personally stitched for me. This is an antique reproduction from Sheepish Designs that I really enjoyed stitching, It is Phebe Tree 1823. I stitched it on 40 count linen with AVS silks.

ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL PROGRESS

2009-09-28T14:00:00.001-04:00

This is my progress on ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL
not much but stitching a little in the mornings and
nights since I do not have that much time during the
day. It is a fun stitch and a way to relieve stress.

But I am enjoying myself working on my wips and
cannot wait to get to the others so I can finish them
and start on some new ones.

And the Winner is.....

2009-09-27T09:33:00.005-04:00

Well, I couldn't decide on just one winner. All the entries were great so I had Kathy draw 2 names out of the hat. So, Congratulations to Maureen and Teresa S. the two winners. You will need to email Kathy at madstitcherdesigns@gmail.com and give her your mailing information as she will be sending out the charts. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and keep checking back. We will be having another contest in the future.

Contest!! PUMPKIN SEASON

2009-09-16T14:49:00.003-04:00

As autumn is quickly approaching we thought it might be fun to do something a bit different. So...

I am posting the start of a contest for all my readers. What you need to do is post a comment here on the blog telling me why you would like to stitch my chart called Pumpkin Season and what you like about it. The dates of the contest are from Sunday, September 13th through Sunday, September 27th. At the close of the contest I will draw a name from all the entries for a free chart. Remember only posts here on the blog will be entered and only one entry per person will be counted--although you may comment as often as you like. Kathy aka The Mad Stitcher will be mailing out the chart at the end of the contest. I would also like to hear what you think about the blog including anything you would like to see added or improved upon. We are always looking for something new and exciting to do here.

PLEASE: IF YOU CHOOSE TO POST ANONYMOUSLY YOU MUST AT LEAST SIGN YOUR NAME SO THAT WE WILL KNOW WHO YOU ARE. OTHERWISE YOU WILL NOT BE ENTERED IN THE DRAWING.

Grandson #4

2009-09-14T22:39:00.000-04:00

Grant is growing like a weed and his birthday is
coming soon, I cannot believe that he will be 1 year
old. He loves to smile and he is so loving and sweet.
My husband and I love to babysit him, he loves for
us to be just right beside him and play with him, he
gets upset if we leave him alone since he likes for
us to entertain him, He does not like to be fed, he
likes to eat by himself since he was 9 months old and if
we try to feed him, he just pushes our hand out of the
way. lol lol lol what a mess he makes but the worst
part is cleaning up after he eats and also cleaning
him up hahahaha but we love to see how independent
he is.

JESUS WEPT CIRCA 1820

2009-09-11T02:00:00.001-04:00

This is another wip that I decided to take out and finish
since I fell in love with it when the Scarlet Letter released
it, I am using the silk floss it came with, I decided to use
40 count hand-dyed linen and stitch it with one thread over
two threads of linen, since it calls for 1 over 1. It is a
double sided reproduction and the other piece is a wonderful
verse which I will also stitch and frame them individually.

I took the picture at night and the flash hit that light spot below.

AND ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL

2009-09-11T01:52:00.003-04:00

After years of having bought this kit with
the 35 count linen and silk floss and wanting
to start it as soon as I got it,but never having
the time to stitch for myself, I decided to make
time for me and started it last week, so this
is a picture of what I have done so far.

This kit is from The Scarlet Letter.

ANN WELLINGTON 1809

2009-09-11T01:45:00.001-04:00

This is another wip that I had started and decided
to also finish. I am stitching this one on 35 count
hand-dyed linen with silk floss.

WIP OF A.W. 1756

2009-09-11T01:35:00.002-04:00

I decided to take some time and work on my wips.
This is a Vierlande sampler reproduction from the
Scarlet Letter, it is stitched entirely in red with the
exception of Adam and Eve's hair and the serpent
which are stitched in black.

I am stitching this design in 40 count hand-dyed
linen with silk floss.

THE LAST ADVENTURE OF SUMMER

2009-09-11T01:26:00.001-04:00

My husband and son-in-law took the boys
on a wonderful camping trip, where they
got to fish, swim, take the canoe on the lake
for more fishing and sleeping under the stars.

The waterfalls of Cascade Lake in North
Carolina are very beautiful and the boys
enjoyed the swimming under the waterfalls.

QUAKER ALPHABET SAMPLAR

2009-09-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

Model was stitched on 32/36 unevenweave
linen, which I dyed with blackberry tea. One
strand of floss was used over two threads
of linen. Of course you can stitch this design
on any count of linen. WDW threads were
used with a conversion to DMC

Stitch Count: 118w X 152h

FINISHED PHOTOS OF JOANN'S SAMPLERS

2009-09-08T21:24:00.004-04:00

Joann from Houston sent me two finished
pictures of her designs of WHERE ARE THEE
ADAM and EVIL SERPENT. Thank you so
much Joann for sharing your wonderful stitched
pieces with me, I love the frames you used
on both of them, again thank you.

HAVEN'S TRIP BACK HOME

2009-09-04T13:21:00.003-04:00

Well frankly these were very sad pictures to
take since they meant that my oldest grandson
Haven had to go back home and get ready for
school.

We had a wonderful time with him and he had
a wonderful time also since he went to Dollywood,
TN, camping, swimming, Toys 'R' Us (this is his
favorite place hahaha) Alex and Haven had a wonderful
time getting to see each other again, we had slumber
parties at the house, seeing lots of movies and fixing
their favorite snacks (my husband and I would just
look at one another and say "when will they fall asleep,
we are just to old for this) it brought back memories
when our kids use to have slumber parties and drive
us crazy.

But anyway my heart broke in two seeing him go and
only God knows when we will get to see him again, we
are thinking Christmas (maybe) he is such a wonderful
and sweet little boy.

WE HAVE BEEN SUPER BUSY

2009-09-03T19:47:00.005-04:00

Kathy (Madstitcher) is stitching up a storm on three new designs,
one is already at the framers and she is almost finish with the
second one and getting ready for the third one.

Mindy Gooding is stitching a wonderful long band sampler with
a beautiful old verse in the colors red, black and gold.

I am working on a long band sampler with alphabets, lots of bands
with the focal point of Adam and Eve. I am also taking a break and
stitching something for myself that I have been wanting to do for
almost 7 years and it is "And All Was For An Appil" from the Scarlet
Letter. I am stitching it on 35 count linen from the Scarlet Letter.
I will take a picture and post it soon on what I have stitched so far.

ALEX'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

2009-09-03T16:53:00.005-04:00

Here are some pictures of my grandson's birthday party,
we had a ball, especially the boy's. On one of the pictures
you can see my three grandson's in the pool, on the left
is Alex, in the middle Grant and on the right is my oldest
grandson Haven, who lives in Texas and came to spend
two wonderful weeks with us.

We let Grant eat his first piece of cake his way hahaha

Lynn D.'s And They Sinned

2009-08-23T19:19:00.003-04:00

Lynn was kind enough to send me a photo of her And They Sinned and it is gorgeous. She stitched this on Pearl Barley linen using the Gentle Arts Sampler Threads. For the most part stitched as designed but she did omit the grass at the bottom. Thank you Lynn for sharing with us. You did a wonderful job.

Deborah's PEACEFUL MEADOW

2009-08-14T17:58:00.008-04:00

Deborah stitched my complementary design on 40 ct Linen using silks. Thanks Deborah for sharing this with us. You did a great job and it looks beautiful.

This freebie is available on the blog, if you would like to
download it, go back some pages.

TRIP TO WASHINGTON DC

2009-08-14T17:50:00.006-04:00

These are some pictures that were taken during the trip
my daughter took with her family to Washington DC.

Some were taken in the Smithsonian Museum, others in
front of the White House and the others in frot of the
Washington Manument.

Alex really enjoyed this trip to Washington since
he is of an age to learn and apreciate things better, he
really loved everything he saw in the Smithsonian Museum
and loved taking a picture in front of the white house (well
at least that you can see the white house in the background)
he was so impressed by this trip.

Kathy's BLACK DAHLIA wip

2009-08-09T21:00:00.004-04:00

Kathy aka The Mad Stitcher finally sent me a photo of her Black Dahlia WIP. She is using silks on 32 ct white Belfast linen. She is working on this between all her model stitching and I appreciate her sending me the update. Thank you my dear kind wonderful friend (Kathy is very busy doing some more model stitching for me, but she likes to take a little break with her group of stitching friends and do some stitching for her)

Kiki's TRINITY sampler

2009-08-09T20:52:00.006-04:00

Kiki has sent me an update on her Trinity Sampler. She is making great progress and it is so much fun watching it progress week by week. Thank you, Kiki, for sharing these updates with us each week. I really love getting them. She is using silks on undyed unevenweave linen. She says she made one small color change to the corner motifs. Kiki would really like some company stitching this design. If you want to join her SAL just let me know and I will get you together. Kiki you are really making that needle smoke, I cannot believe how much
you have stitched and I want you to know how much I appreciate your progress pictures, they
mean alot to me, hugs your way Kiki.

Jeni's NORTHERN LIGHTS SAMPLAR

2009-08-09T20:41:00.006-04:00

Jeni was kind enough to send me photos to share with you of her Northern Lights Sampler. She is stitching it on a 32 ct linen "mystery color" using the called for threads--although she did change BeWitched to Witches Brew. Great work, Jeni. Thanks so much for sharing this with me and allowing me to share with others.

NEW RELEASE FOR SEPTEMBER 2009

2009-08-07T15:00:00.003-04:00

"MY LEARNING HANDS"

Model was stitched on 32 count Legacy hand
dyed linen from "Picture This Plus" and 18
delicious colors of silk with a DMC con-
version. This design has one specialty stitch
and it is the eyelet stitch, used on all the windows
of the house.

Stitch count is 189w X 207h

ANOTHER WIP PHOTO FROM MARY ANN

2009-07-29T19:30:00.008-04:00

Mary Ann sent me scans of her ATS and while the paste job isn't the best (Sorry Mary Ann) you can certainly see the wonderful stitching that she has done. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful progress with us. Be sure to click on it to get a good look on Mary Ann's beautiful
work, personally I think the golden color linen gives it a beautiful antique look.

Mary Ann states that she

"started this design a number of years ago, and worked thru most of Pg3 ... picked it up again this year and have progressed into the 'last scene'.

Fabric: 35ct hand dyed from the Scarlet Letter (it is a golden tone fabric)

Fibers: GAST, mostly the colors as charted except where they did not contrast well with the fabric, or the dyelot just did not work as well as another color hanging on the shelf. There was a 'gold' color that was more muddy brown and I did not use it for the crowns, for instance."

Debra R's FINISHED PHOTOS

2009-07-29T18:13:00.010-04:00

Debra R was kind enough to send me photos of two of her finishes.

Debra said:

"One is the EVIL SERPENT SAMPLAR - this was such a fun stitch to do - easy and fun. I loved the colors in it just because they were a little different. I used Vintage Country Mocha for this piece and loved how it came out. I stitched this for what I hope someday will be my Adam and Eve Sampler wall. The Adam and Eve wall idea actually came from stitching And They Sinned."

Then came AND THEY SINNED. She said:

"I enjoyed every stitch - every inch of ATS! It was like going on a fantastic stitching adventure. I used 35 count Elegant Bean and the threads that you suggested. When I was finished, I felt such a huge loss. I missed visiting with this piece every chance I had to sit down. It now hangs at the bend in my back staircase, so I can look at it each and every day. I have to say, without a doubt, this has been my most favorite piece to stitch."

Thank you Debra. It was a lot of work to design but also a lot of fun. I am glad you enjoyed it.

LESLIE'S PEACOCK GARDEN

2009-07-27T14:59:00.001-04:00

This design was stitched on 34 count Devonshire
Cream Legacy linen, using one ply of floss from
Crescent Colours over two threads of linen. Model
was stitched by Leslie Detjen.

Stitch count is 176w X 197h

ANOTHER "AND THEY SINNED"

2009-07-23T12:14:00.004-04:00

I just heard from Doris B. sharing a photo of her completed And They Sinned. I especially liked the way she signed it. She was also telling me that her Mom and sister are each stitching it as well! Isn't that a wonderful idea for a SAL? Thank you Doris for sharing this wonderful finish. Be sure to send me photos of your Mom's and sister's when they are done.

Doris stitched hers on 40 Lambswool Linen using the called for fibers (mostly). She said she made a few minor changes but that is great. I love people to personalize their pieces. Click for a closeup.

Here is a bit of a closeup on her bottom section where she personalized it. Doris, I love what you did.

Having Fun!

2009-07-22T05:17:00.001-04:00

I am having so much fun seeing all your photos. Thank you all for sharing your wip photos as well as your finished pieces. Please keep sharing with me. I know that everyone else is enjoying seeing them also.

JOANN'S ETFH WALL!!

2009-07-22T05:03:00.002-04:00

My friend Joann M. has sent me more photos and I am so enjoying them. Joann is a dear friend from the Legacy BB that I *met* many years ago. She had loaned many of her pieces to an LNS which burned down and she lost most of her work. Now she has begun to restitch them all again. Thank you, Joann for sharing all these wonderful photos with me and allowing me to share them with everyone here.

First her EFTH wall! Love how you have arranged them all. Top left is Flowers of Joy, then Mermaid of the Sea. Bottom left is ESH 1793 Sampler and then The Windmill.

A closeup of Flowers of Joy:

A closeup of the ESH 1793 Sampler:

And lastly Quaker Heart:

Kiki's TRINITY progress pictures

2009-07-22T05:00:00.003-04:00

Kiki is making great progress on Trinity and she has shared more photos with us. Here is her progress so far along with a closeup to show the wonderful colors. Great work Kiki. Keep the photos coming.

(clickable)

GUIDANCE from Beth H.

2009-07-22T05:00:00.002-04:00

Beth also sent me a photo of her wip. This is Guidance which she is stitching on 40 ct silk gauze! I love the look of this. Just lovely. Thank you Beth for your photo. You stitching is fabulous. The piece is absolutely beautiful, I am astonished that you are not only stitching this
one over one but doing all that filling in, your work is amazing.

ATS by Beth H.

2009-07-22T04:49:00.001-04:00

Beth was also kind enough to send me a picture of her finished piece of And They Sinned. It is shown here with her beautiful daughter Madeline. Isn't she just the cutest thing? Love that smile. Wonderful stitching Beth! Thank you for sharing your photos. Beth finished her ATS in March of 2007, she stitched her design in my 35 count Bedrock linen witn GAT.
Please tell Madeline that she is not only beautiful but makes a wonderful model.

AND THEY SINNED

2009-07-21T21:00:00.001-04:00

Model was stitched on a half yard linear cut
hand-dyed linen with 28 color of GAT. I have
received so many pictures of this design stitched
in so many counts of linen, even one over one.
People have sent me pictures where they won
blue ribbons on this design.

When Anna and I came up with this design it was
just going to be the upper part of Adam and Eve,
then the idea hit me when I saw that part stitched
on such a long piece of linen, why not continue
stitching it as a band samplar and add more biblical
scenes to it and put the figure of a woman with the
lion and the lamb, to show peace between animals
and humans. Anna Baird did such an exceptional
work on this design, but unfortunately did not live
long enough to see what a tremendous impact this
design had on the market. Anna died from cancer
two months after this design was released.

Stitch count is 169w X 809h

MY GARDEN SAMPLAR

2009-07-21T20:00:00.001-04:00

This is a limited edition graph which includes
3 buttons dyed to match the colors of DMC.
Model was stitched on 32 count hand-dyed linen
with WDW and DMC threads, the buttons were
made for this design by Button Frenzy.

Stitch count is 96w X 107h

GILL'S FORGIVENESS WIP

2009-07-20T18:25:00.002-04:00

Gill was very gracious and sent me a photo of her wip of her Forgiveness. It is stitched on 34 count Cafe Au Lait from Legacy Linen using DMC floss. Thank you so much Gill. Wonderful work.

VALENTINE ANGEL SAMPLAR

2009-07-19T13:00:00.001-04:00

This samplar would be a wonderful gift to stitch
for a wonderful friend or friends, or you can change
it to parents, brothers, sisters, your children or
grandchildren. Model was stitched on 35 count
hand-dyed linen, with Eterna Silk threads, with
a DMC and ANCHOR conversion.

Stitch count is 126w X 69h

Examplars From The Heart

THANK YOU ALICE

GOODIES, PICTURES AND WIP

Birthday, News and Wip

THIS &THAT AND NEW

THE BEST GIFTS RECEIVED

WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO LATELY.

SHARING HARRIET'S "FRIENDS"

HAD TO GIVE INTO TEMPTATION!!!!!!!!

CAROL SIMS "SHY PHILOMENA"

GRANT'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY

TED AND BRENDA SHARING "RESURRECTION"

CANNOT BELIEVE I WON SOMETHING

ALEX'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY PARTY

NEW DESIGNS READY TO RELEASE

NEW RELEASE "GUARDING EDEN"

PAULE'S "FANCY TULIP"

WIP OF A.W. 1756

MY AAWFAA FINISHED AND FRAMED

A surprise birthday for my DH

**WINNER ** and more photos

A surprise!

The Squirrels from H*ll !!!

Roses from daughter and pictures of finished samplers.

MY WIP AND STASH

FUN AND WORKING

MY OFFICE AND WHERE I WORK

NEW RELEASE FOR APRIL 2010

EASTER SUNDAY & DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY

SHARING AND BLESSINGS

My wip of AWFAA and some goodies I got.

Cathies's LE NEEDLECHARMER Finish

New WIP Photos from Kiki

FINISHED PIECES FROM CATHIE OF CANADA

FINISHES, WIP, NEWS AND A STORY

NEW RELEASES FOR FEBRUARY 2010

Happy Birthday to Me! And Happy winning to You!

Some gifts, and SPECIAL "NEWS"

DEB WOHLLEBEN "ATS"

SHARING SOME MORE SAMPLERS

OUR CHRISTMAS STORY

DECORATING WITH SANTA'S

A SMALL FAMILY GATHERING

Sharing more of my samplers.

A finish and a wip from Sylvia

Melissa's Windmill Sampler

My WIP of AND ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL

More of my personal finished samplers.

Pictures of wips of Cathie G. and Theresa B.

SOME MORE PICTURES OF MY PERSONAL STITCHING SAMPLERS

SARAH AND HER DIFFICULT JOURNEY

Contest Winner

A new Contest! "THE BLESSING"

Kathy P. MERMAID AND THE SEA

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR

Some More Samplers

A STITCHING BIRTHDAY PARTY

GRANT'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

PROGRESS ON AAWFAA

KIKI'S "TRINITY" UPDATE

MINDY G. A FINISH AND A WIP

NEW RELEASE FOR OCTOBER

Some of The Stitcherhood designs

ABIGAIL GOULD 1796

PHEBE TREE 1823

ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL PROGRESS

And the Winner is.....

Contest!! PUMPKIN SEASON

Grandson #4

JESUS WEPT CIRCA 1820

AND ALL WAS FOR AN APPIL

ANN WELLINGTON 1809

WIP OF A.W. 1756

THE LAST ADVENTURE OF SUMMER

QUAKER ALPHABET SAMPLAR

FINISHED PHOTOS OF JOANN'S SAMPLERS

HAVEN'S TRIP BACK HOME

WE HAVE BEEN SUPER BUSY

ALEX'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

WINNER and more photos