Maria Antoni Sampler FINISHED

 I am finished with this sampler. I made a few changes, but am happy with it so that is how it will stay!!

Many of the areas in the lower third called for long arm cross, but there were areas with a lot of color change and I just could not get the hang of the stitch, so I did regular cross stitch. 

Also, there is some other lettering and numbers under her name, but I could not figure out what they said and left them out. I did put my initials and the year in an empty space to the right of the tree.

I started this at a Sampler Guild of the Rockies Retreat in 2015. All I got done then was the black and yellow stitches in the motif at the upper left. I picked the project back up in April of this year and have worked on it most evenings since. Finishing it on October 24.  It is 12.5" x 17" on 36 count linen and uses Soie d' alger silks.

Here is a close up of the beaded area:

Now on to other projects. This is one plus of being retired during a pandemic, I am getting a TON of stitching done and I try to look on the bright side.

Happy Stitching!!

Maria Antoni Sampler Update

 I have been making pretty good progress and I am close to being done. I did make one change. On approximately the lower third, it called for the long armed cross stitch for all. I am ok with long stretches of this stitch, but the design had individual elements using this stitch, changing colors etc. So, to save my sanity, I did these in regular cross stitch. 

I took this picture at the end of my stitching day on Saturday, October 17, 2020.

Happy Stitching!!

A Little Beading and A New Project

 My local bead club decided to try a zoom meeting and suggested a project to work on. It was fun and more of a get together to chat and bead than a learning class. We all worked on the same project. This was the first time zoom was attempted and it looks like the club will keep it up as an open beading event twice a week. 

The project we worked on was 3D Peyote Squares by Kelly Dale of Off the Beaded Path. It was a lot of fun and as you can see I did quite a few and played around with colors a little. I made them into earrings and a necklace! This project used No. 11 Delicas.

The "chain" for this necklace is a spiral rope using No. 11 seed beads that matched the Delicas.

I also have an update on the Maria Antoni Sampler, progress as of August 26:

A little closer up here:

Last June I took advantage of an opportunity to get a limited edition kit commemorating the journey of the Mayflower to America. Designed by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread, it honors the Women of the Mayflower by listing their names in the sampler.  I am doing it on 40 count (the smallest I  have ever stitched on) because I loved the fabric color choice for that count. It is kind of mottled. I ordered my kit from Sassy Jacks Stitchery in North Carolina. I knew the owner when I lived in NC.

The kit arrived a couple of weeks ago and came in a nice box and included a cute pilgrim needle minder, a label for the back when finished and framed, a ring to hold threads and a card to put on the ring to mark the project the threads were for. Of course the fabric, threads and chart were in the box too!  

It also had a bonus chart and some fabric to use as backing if we wanted to make the bonus into a pillow, along with finishing instructions to get the best use of the fabric. It is a reproduction of the page of Mayflower passenger William Bradford.

Since 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower, the general idea was to start the Sampler on September 6, the day the Mayflower set sail, and finish the sampler on November 11, the day the Mayflower landed in Cape Cod. It was a 66 day journey.  

Since I am doing it on 40 count linen the finished size will be approx. 6 1/4 inches by 21 inches. Here is my progress so far:

I will be doing this with lots of lighting and magnification!! I am looking forward to it since I love history and this combined with my love of stitching! 

Happy Stitching!!

Maria Antoni Sampler, Agatha Christie & Coloring

Hello below is how far along I am not with the Maria Antoni Sampler. My pace has slowed because I have been doing a LOT of reading and took a coloring class online. As you can see I am at the halfway point. I do hope to get it done before the sampler kit I ordered for the 400th anniversary of the May Flower comes in Sept. The ideas is to start stitching it the date the May Flower left England and finish on the date it arrives in the New World. But that is for another post!

Did you know that 2020 marks 100 years of Agatha Christie? Her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920. More information can be found at her official website

I found this out around June 25 and since then I have been reading her books in an attempt to get them all read in 2020. We will see how THAT goes. Many years ago I subscribed to the Bantam Books Agatha Christie Mystery Collection with the idea of reading them when I retired, so I have all her mystery books (plus a few others) and decided to give it a go. I am reading them in order to see if I can notice a change/development of her style. But honestly, I read for fun so I probably won't notice. So far I have not figured out any of the guilty parties, except for in a few of the short stories. Enjoying it tremendously. 

I have read these so far, having finished Thirteen for Dinner last night and now I am on to Murder on the Orient Express.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The Secret Adversary

Murder on the Links

The Man in the Brown Suit

Poirot Investigates

The Secret of Chimneys

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Big Four

The Mystery of the Blue Train

The Seven Dials Mystery

Partners in Crime (SS)

The Mysterious Mr. Quin (SS)

The Murder at the Vicarage

Murder at Hazelmoor

Peril at End House

The Tuesday Club Murders (SS)

Thirteen at Dinner

I also decided I wanted to color better with colored pencils. I found this really good online class from Kit and Clowder. She has free classes, some great general information, and classes you pay for.  She is in Australia, so the price is not too bad after the conversion and I LOVE her accent. She is also very positive and encouraging and offers free consultations. She covers pencils and while she uses Prismacolors, she has charts for other brands. She also has Copic marker classes with conversion to other marker brands. 

The June/July class was called Brighten Your Day and her is my result. I used Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Springhill Vellum Bristol Cover Digital - 67# and 147gsm. It fits in the manual feed of my printer without any trouble. You need to be able to print out the images to color.

That about covers it for now!!

Stay safe all.

Maria Antoni Sampler Update

I have been stitching a bit on this in the evenings and working my way through it. Some parts have been harder than others, but I am well on my way to half way.

The chart for the section at lower right was a bear to read, I had to use the color photo of the sampler to figure it out. But it is FINALLY finished! Now on to the pretty flowers.

That is all for now, take care everyone!!

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

More reading than stitching since I have been in a bit of a reading mood the last few weeks.  I am in the process of reading Christmas Boutique by Jennifer Chiaverini.  I think what started this reading trend was our bookmobile returning (pick up and drop of only) and I finally broke down and bought a Kindle. Here is what I have read so far.

Lost Among the Angels	Alice Duncan
Angels Flight	Alice Duncan
Fallen Angels	Alice Duncan
Angels of Mercy	Alice Duncan
Thanksgiving Angels	Alice Duncan
Scraps of Paper	Kathryn Meyer Grifith
Owl Be Home for Christmas	Donna Andrews
Love & Death Among the Cheetahs	Rhys Bowen
The Victory Garden	Rhys Bowen
What Child is This	Rhys Bowen
Above the Bay of Angels	Rhys Bowen
A View to Die For	Richard Houston
Christmas Bells	Jennifer Chiaverini

I have also been quilting and did a little finishing, so here goes the updates.

I  have worked a bit more on the Maria Antoni Sampler and it is a little over 1/4 done.

I also put together the blocks for a quilt top and moving on to the borders.

I used Layer Cake pre-cuts from the Moda Fabrics Farmhouse II collection and solid white layer cake pre-cuts (10" squares). I then followed Layer Cake Recipe Card 2 to create the needed half square triangles and sewed them together to make the T blocks. Used my "fancy" design wall (the back of a fleeced plastic tablecloth binder clipped to my bookshelf).

I also made a disappearing four patch star based on month 4 of the Missouri Star Quilt Company's 2020 block of the month club. I am not a club member, but used their you tube video to recreate the block using my fabric. It was fun!!

Finally I did a bit of finishing, turning this gingerbread man I stitched in 2014 into an ornament. It was from a challenge put out by the Columbine ANG chapter in Denver, CO to trace a cookie cutter and stitch an ornament.

I think that covers it for now. Take care everyone and 

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!!!

Maria Antoni Sampler

I last told you about this sampler here on May 1.  I have been stitching on it in the evenings and average about 3 hours a night. It was a 2015 workshop offered by the Sampler Guild of the Rockies. The piece is designed by and the class taught by Margriet Hogue of the Essamplaire.

Here is the progression so far and I plan to post an update every Monday. 

April 28, 2020

May 3, 2020

 May 10, 2020

Happy Stitching!!

Latest Project - Maria Antoni Sampler

I tend to stitch in the evenings while my hubby watches TV (I listen to it a lot) and during the day I work on other stuff. Kind of a remnant from when I worked, but now I can do FUN stuff during the day!!

During the day, I have been quilting a bit, organizing my studio a bit and making cards. I took a virtual retreat and posted about it here. The post is a tad photo heavy since we learned 11 projects! It was fun. I also picked up a needlepoint project that is more easily worked at my studio desk than on the sofa - it is on the large size. A post for another day!

In the evenings I have been working on a former UFO (UnFinished Object) called Maria Antoni Sampler by Margriet Hogue of the Essamplaire. She was the instructor for the 2015 Sampler Guild of The Rockies Retreat. It is worked with Soi d'Alger silk but I am not sure the fabric other than it is a 32 count. I believe it was originally charted for 40 count, but she offered this count as well for the Guild retreat.

When I took the class I did not get far, only as far as all the black and yellow stitches in the top left diamond area. I started on it again around April 21 and below is my progress. This will take me a while, it is a large sampler the fabric is 18" tall by 23" wide.

I think that is all for now! Take care everyone.