Sampler theme box of drawers

This is an idea I was excited to try though in the end my execution of it is only so-so.

This is a Countdown Calendar from Karen Foster Design You can do a google search to find a place to buy one if you are at all interested in doing something like this. They are about $20 but I've seen them a bit lower on some websites. I have seen these made for with Christmas and Halloween themes to help children countdown to the holiday. You can insert little treats and trinkets in the drawers.

I thought I'd make one with a sampler theme and maybe keep charms and buttons and any other small item in the drawers. So here are my warnings if you decide to try this yourself.

First, the box is made of slick white cardboard. It took me 3 days to get the piece painted because unlike regular flat cardboard, the paint needed many layers of coverage. Very frustrating when you want to get onto the fun part. The tiny edges in between the drawers do not take paint well at all and I finally said "enough with this, it will have to do". Thus the coverage isn't perfect.

Second you need to paint the drawer fronts or else have a bit bigger template for the paper coverings as the white will show if you don't paint them. The drawers are equally as frustrating to paint as the box.

Third, you need to notch the paper to bend it around the half circle drawer pulls. I was advised to buy a circle punch but unfortunately it is very, very difficult to figure out where exactly to place the punch so that a half circle forms rather than a full circle so I ditched the punch and did the notching. However, gluing the little ends of paper to the back proved difficult as there wasn't much to work with. I would cut the top of the paper larger next time in order to have more to work with in order to make the half circles more regular.

I plan to try another little box piece but using small matchboxes, 8 sets of 3 stacked in a pattern and I will post it when/if I get it done. I do know the regular cheap matchboxes take the paint much, much better than the slick surface of the countdown calendar. My other thought for the calendar is to cover the side and back surfaces with paper instead of paint but that could present a whole new set of problems.
Good luck, I would love to see any that you might produce!

Teach Me Samplers

I love comparing antique samplers that have the same verse. The samplers above all are stitched with "Teach me to feel another's woe To hide the fault I see That mercy I to others show That mercy show to me".

It's interesting to see how each stitcher illustrated a verse to their own liking. If you like looking at old samplers be sure and visit Needlework Antiques where they have a gallery of antique samplers.

~Good luck Nick~

Just wanted to say good luck to my son who has gone to Savannah to finish up his BFA as a transfer student at Savannah College of Art and Design. We are so proud of him but will miss him very much. He thinks he'll like the humidity after years of the Arizona "dry heat" but I think the next picture makes me wonder about that assertion, he looks a tad bit miserable,lol.





On another note, how would you like to have an historic lighthouse in your backyard? This is the front of the house, you can see the base of the lighthouse through the trees.


And look what you see going around to the back of the house. Those trees are in their backyard. Unfortunately, it is not a lighthouse open to the public and is surrounded by a fence on US Coast Guard property. This is Amelia Island in Florida and we stayed there a couple days for a little getaway. It's a lovely little place with an historic downtown.

A small preview

I thought I'd show you a small piece (and the only over one part) of my new Family Record Sampler. I've done it all in pale greens/browns with a hint of pale pink, purple and yellow. It has a house, a willow tree, birds, some flowers and of course an area to write in all your family info, names, birth dates etc. I've made it without an elaborate border so that it can be adjusted to fit as many names and dates as you wish. I have a very small amount left to stitch and then I plan to release it. Thanks for looking!

Blessed Harvest

Here's another new release, Blessed Harvest. Well, as you can see by the date, it's not THAT new, in fact, I've had nothing but problems releasing this in a timely manner the past few years. I couldn't seem to coordinate it with a fall release or else I'd forget about having it on hold. So finally, it's out with a corrected date on the actual chart.

We've been busy this past month taking DD to Seattle to start her freshman year of college. She seems to be adjusting very well (knock on wood) and we were impressed with the city, it was gorgeous and we loved the fact that getting into a car didn't involve getting burned on a steering wheel or driving miles before it would get cool inside.


Nest week it's Savannah to deposit our son and then empty nest reigns! So far, so good.

Cottage Pinkeep Sampler

First I would like to say thank you to all who have participated in the Angel in my Pocket project as seen below. I so appreciate each and everyone's donation. I have not yet sent everything off to Peggy yet but will be doing so this week.

Next, I have another new sampler I'm calling Cottage Pinkeep Sampler. Bascially, each of the 9 squares in this sampler can be made into a little pinkeep as seen above. The piece uses 32 ct Antique White and all Anchor threads. I hope you enjoy it.

Simple Pleasures and Friendship Pocket

The above is Simple Pleasures stitched on 32 ct Antique Ivory from Zweigart. Below is Friendship Pocket on 40 ct Vintage Examplar from Lakeside Linens. They are off to the distributors this week. Can anyone spot the cat hair? LOL

2 new designs and more to come

The above design is "Garden Angels" and is stitched on 32 ct Antique Ivory using Gentle Arts floss. The one below is "Strawberries for Ewe" stitched on either 28 or 30 ct Korty's Special Blend from R&R and uses Crescent Colours threads. I'll be sending these out to the distributors next week.



I have several more new designs including new stitching pockets coming out soon. Thank you to all who read my blog, I appreciate all the comments.

A few more offerings

Well, I don't know what got into me but I've been a stitching fiend for the past few weeks and have produced some new designs. The first is hot off the iron as of an hour ago and I don't have a name for it (any ideas?) but I absolutely enjoyed every stitch! It only took me 3 1/2 days to stitch and I love the colors if I do say so myself. I used a bunch of new Gentle Arts Shaker threads.

The second piece was finished for me by Deb Hunter and has the oh-so creative name of "Remember Me Stitching Pocket", lol. Deb always does such a fantastic job of finshing and I highly recommend her. You can contact her at artisticneedle@swbell.net

The third piece I'm calling "A Patriot's Sampler". I like to do a patriotic piece each summer and this one grew and grew, too many good quotes out there! I hope you'll like them and they should be out within a couple weeks.

Primitive Wizard of Oz finished

Finished! This is my primitive Wizard of Oz that I talked about below. It scanned a bit light but you'll get the idea, lol. Hope you like it.

Primitive Wizard of Oz

Here's a little sneak preview of my flying monkey. I just designed and am currently stitching a primitive Wizard of Oz sampler. My daughter is off to the "Emerald City" for college this fall (Seattle) and is also playing Oz in her annual dance recital which has the Wizard of Oz theme this year so I thought it was an appropriate time to do an Oz sampler. Stay tuned!

Sheep's Paradise

Just a quick note and photo of my latest design, "Sheep's Paradise". It's done on 40 ct Sandstone with Crescent Colours cotton floss. It was so nice stitching with the bright colors at this time of year and I hope you'll like it.

Jesus Permit Thy Gracious Name samplers

One of the more popular verses on antique samplers seems to be "Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand as the first efforts of this infant's hand" and variations thereof. I thought it would be fun to post a few of the images I've collected of these verses as I find it so interesting to see how each needleworker chose to illustrate their sampler uniquely.























I don't always remember where I find these images but if you like browsing antique samplers as much as I do then M.Finkel and Daughter have a wonderful website showing all kinds of antique samplers.

Good news

The above painting is by Jerome Rozen and is something I came across while on my travels across the internet. I believe it's an oil painting and I loved the colors and mood of it.

Well, good news for me in that I've recovered my designs except for the last couple that I have not yet released and there is hope for those, even if I just have to chart them again. So yippee! Just waiting to find out if the family photos can be recovered and there is a good chance that they will. I do have backup but not for maybe the last year though many of those are on various photo sites around the 'net so not completely lost.

I'm busy designing again now that I've got another computer to do it on. I've just designed and am almost done stitching a pouch with a sampler look and also a piece I'm calling Sheep's Paradise which is sort of a Peaceable Kingdom with sheep. I'm also releasing this piece called Remember Me.

Cool!

I love looking at old samplers and I'm always on the lookout for familiar names. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this pair of English samplers with my last name THORPE!!!! One worked by Eliza Thorpe and dated 1822, depicting Ticehurst Asylum; the other worked by Charity Thorpe and dated 1834, depicting Queen's Palace.

Hearts for Thee

This is a new design coming out very soon called Hearts for Thee. It might be the last one for a while as my hard drive gave up the ghost and is now in the shop. I have little hope of recovering much but am trying to think positively. Luckily, I'm in the middle of stitching a new design and can rechart it without a problem. It's about half of the designs that I have out now that will most likely be "retired" so get what you want while there are still some out there.

Edited to add: the valentine pendants I put up here yesterday are sold but I did find a sheet I had printed before Xmas and will make a few more so keep an eye here in the next few days for a new post.

As far as the computer troubles, I know I should be much more upset to lose so much but strangely I'm not. I think I realize this is going to be a year of big change in our family and that is more on my mind than my designs. I've had a good run with them and plan to continue but am not buying a new computer until February 1st which is after mercury retrograde leaves. If you know anything about astrology you know that the 3 week period about 3 times a year of mercury going retrograde is not a good time to buy electronics, machinery, cars etc. I'm not taking any chances!DH gave me one of the new cute little laptops for Christmas so there is no hurry as far as being able to connect to the internet and get email. The tiny keyboard causes me a number of typos though. I do miss my mouse!

Speaking of change, DD graduates from high school in May and has applied to 8 different colleges, all on the west coast (except her safety school, University of AZ which is here in town). She's already been accepted to four of them and is just waiting to hear about the California schools. However, her number one choice was University of Washington in Seattle and she heard last week, to her delight, that she has been admitted. She also got her Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do last week so we've been celebrating.

DS just got back from a trip to San Francisco to check out the Academy of Art University and it looks like he is very excited about the place so I know the empty nest is finally here come fall.

On another note, I am discontinuing my webpage because I can never get it updated since DD is my over-busy webmistress and it just seems ridiculous to pay for it. I do much better here as I can update easily on my own.
Whoa, sort of a long post but I guess I had more to say than I realized. I hope everyone has had a great start to the new year. Thanks for reading.

Happy New Year 2009!

Happy New Year everyone! I've woefully neglected blogging during the holidays. Too much decorating and cooking and cleaning and all the other stuff including trips to Phoenix and cancelled trips to Sedona (due to weather) and Mexico (due to logistics). I wish everyone a blessed new year. I've accumulated some random photos to post here from our holidays.


Above is our big ol' tomcat Smokey after a nice meal on Christmas day. He lives for his food bowl in case you couldn't tell.


And this is Snowflake. He's sweet and quiet and loves "his" chair. We've piled it with comforters and pillows and he spends a good part of each day napping there.


Above is my daughter posing with her friend and our big pink sheep "Sheila" in front of the snowmen we put in our entryway each year. This was a few days before Christmas and they made a beautiful cake that day:

YUM...


Above are the kids on Christmas Eve, a little blurry but the light was low.


And oh yes, I had told friends I'd post the lemon ornament I wrote about in the 2008 Christmas issue of JCS and here she is in all her glory. My grandmother gave it to us years ago when I was a kid, no doubt bought at a Christmas church bazaar and I LOVE my lemon ornament. My siblings made fun of it every year we brought out the ornaments which made me love it even more, that plus the fact there are very few ornaments left from my childhood.


And the above photo was taken yesterday in Romero Canyon near our house. A nice 3 mile hike in some beautiful Arizona winter weather. That saguaro cactus is a couple hundred years old I'd guess.


And found in the back of my closet is my snowman vest that still had the tags on from FOURTEEN YEARS AGO! Daughter wanted to pose in a "Fugly Christmas Sweater" and this is what we dug up. Yep, quiet day, no school, something to do on a winter afternoon before Christmas...
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and the new year brings joy to everyone.