A Gentleman's Samplings

I finally finished Christinia Cathcart by Samplar Workes on Sunday.  As you recall this was my Olympic 2012 start.  I had planned on getting this done last year but other things (and projects) got in the way. Stitched on 40-ct Lakeside Magnolia using HDF As a part of Nicola's Scarlet Letter Yea r, I decided to do Ruth Bacheler 1717 . The colors in this are really bright and stand out on the fabric. The only thing that gave me a little trouble at first is the counted satin stitch over 3.  It is not graphed very well on the chart but after looking at some other stitcher's WIPS I finally figured it out.  The only change that I have made is the chain underneath the first row of the satin stitched alphabet - changed this from a satin stitch to a normal cross stitch. Stitched on 40-ct Lakeside Pecan Butter using DMC I only have four more chemo treatments to go.  I was suppose to have a treatment this week but due to my platelet count being rea...

I put the final stitches into Scarlet Letter's And All Was For an Appil last night to have my first finish of 2013.  I started this as a part of Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year . Worked on 36-count Lakeside Linen Attic Lace using DMC I am really enjoying participating in the Scarlet Latter Year but I also want to focus on getting some of my other starts completed this year. So for the first part of February I am going to focus on a couple of my WIPS and pick out another Scarlet Letter chart for the challenge. I have just completed my 8th chemotherapy treatment and have only 4 more to go (two thirds of the way done - YEAH!!!). They had to delay a couple of treatments due to a low platelet count so that has moved my final treatment towards the end of March. I am managing the treatments very with just some minor side effects.  Thanks again to everyone for your continued support, thoughts, words of encouragement and prayers.  They are greatly appreciated by me and ...

Let me start by wishing all you a very joyous New Year. Secondly I would like to thank you for all your kind comments, thoughts, words of encouragement, and prayers during the last several months as I fight colon cancer. I have reached the halfway point of the chemotherapy treatments (6 treatments down - 6 to go).  So far I have been handling them fairly well.  Mainly nauseousness but it last for only a couple of days after the treatment. As I have mentioned before the biggest part of the battle is mental but I have a great support group of family and friends that I can talk to to help me keep a positive attitude. I have not really got much stitching done over the last couple of months.  I did manage to finish 1798 Quaker Sampler by The Goode Huswife. Stitched on 40-ct Mystery Linen using the recommended NPI A couple of years ago a fellow member of my local guild stitched a project as a part of Advent.  She marked off her chart into 24 sections an...

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  Seems that life (and health) always gets in the way of good intentions. I would like to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement, thoughts and prayers over the past couple of months.  I am truly blessed to have so many supportive firends and family. The results of the the bronchoscopy that I had in August were inconclusive. So I meet with a cardio and thoracic surgeon who removed some lyumph nodes from my chest region. Those results came back as negative for cancer. So with those results back we could get started with the chemotherapy for stage 3 colon cancer.  I had my first chemotherapy treatment on 2 October and so far so good.  I have only experienced a little bit of nausea and some lightheadiness.  But that was only the first treatment - so 1 down and 11 to go.  I have a treatment every two weeks so I should be completed with treatments in about 6 months. ...

In honor of the 2012 Olympics, I decided a new start was in order.  So beginning with the Opening Ceremonies on Friday evening I started Christinia Cathcart c. 1831 by Samplar Workes (Page Dorsey).  This is a Scottish sampler that I have wanted to stitch for a long time. I started the sampler in the lower right hand corner because I wanted to start the forest and deer portion as soon as possible.  It is taking me a while to get that house completed even though it is only a roof and windows (the house itself is not filled in - only outlined). This is being worked on 40-ct Lakeside Magnolia using Hand Dyed Fibers silks converted from the recommended DMC colors. Really enjoying this but that strawberry border is going to take some time. I do not think I can finish it in the 17 days of the Olympics but at least I can say I have started it. Health Update I had a bronchoscopy with transbronchial biopsy performed on Thursday, 26 July to see if an enlarge...

Hello to all my fellow stitchers/bloggers and thank you for stopping by! I cannot believe that it has been over 2 months since my last post. Where does the time go? I have been away from the blogging world due to some unforeseen health issues. I have posted a brief summary and update at the end of this blog if you are interested. As stated in my last post, I lost a little bit of my mojo in the stitching realm. I could not focus on any of my projects. I decided to focus on the Mexican Schoolgirl Practice Sampler c1830 by Samplers Remembered . This one had some bright colors and different motifs which at least made me feel like I was making some progress. Worked on 40-ct Porcelain Lakeside Linen using DMC and the recommended Waterlilies. After this was completed I decided to start Sarah Elizabeth Brooke’s 1842 by The Scarlet House . This was a very fun stitch and kept me occupied during my recovery from surgery. I stitched the grassy area at the bottom of the sampler us...

A very Happy New Year to all of my friendly followers and fellow stitchers. It is hard to believe that another year has come to an end.  This past year seemed to go by way to fast. And at looking at the date of my last post it seems that once again I have not kept to my goal of at least updating my blog once a month.  I would really like to be like some of my fellow bloggers who post at least once a week. I think a gola this year will be to at least post once a month and gradually build into it.  It would be great if I could at least post a couple of snapshots of current WIPS without having to think of something to say. I had a total of twelve finishes in 2011 which I am really proud of since a few of them were fairly large samplers. The complete list can be found at the bootom of my blog under Completed 2011. I did manage to get two projects completed before the end of the year - B.B 1699 by The Essamplaire and Side By Side Band Samplers by The Scarlet Letter . ...

It always amazes me how fast time goes by these days.  I did not realize that it had been so long since my last blog post. So I must thank you for hanging in there with me. I have been working on some Christmas ornaments over the last couple of weeks for exchanges. I will post pictures of these after they have been given to their new homes. When going through some of my older stitched Items I found a few ornaments that have been stitched but not finished. So I guess I will spend some time over the next couple of weeks on finishing -- which is not as much fun as the stitching itself. B.B. 1699 from The Essamplaire Worked on 40-ct Lakeside Navy Bean using AVAS Silk I have made a little bit of progress on B.B 1699 from The Essamplaire.  This is a great little piece.  B.B. made very good use of the piece of linen.  And there are only 10 colors used.  It is going a little slow because there are a lot of places where the stitches are off set by one linen thread....

First Up -- Something Old  After finishing Mary Allen 1818, I deciced that I needed to get back to work on my Celtic Wallace and Robertson Sampler by Darleen O' Steen .  I have finished part one (Wallace) and working towards getting the second part (Robertson) finished by the end of the year.  I am waiting until all of the stitiching is complete before filling in all of the metallic thread areas. Celtic Walace and Robertson Sampler Stitched on 40-ct Lakeside Mystery Fabric using NPI Silks I am really liking this sampler because it is a challenge with all of the queen stitches. As most of my stitching friends know, queen stitches are (or were) one of my least favorite stitches.  But now that I have the hang of working them they are not too bad. Now if I could only get the hang of doing detached buttonhole I will be able to get back to some samplers that I really want to start and complete.  Something New -- In my last post I ...

Once again I must thank all of you for your kind words and comments on my blog. I have meet some wonderful people in this venture who share the same passion for needlework. I was really surprised when I went to compose my blog post today and noticed that I have 199 followers. I will put something together for a little drawing so please stay posted. We finally have some decent weather in Texas (no +100F days since we had a cool front that moved into the area last night). Our high temperature for the day was only 81F and expected to get down into the low 60s overnight.  I could get use to this but we are expected to get back into the lower 90's by the end of the week.  But it is still try (no measureable rain received or expected) leaving us still in a severe drought situation. So we are still praying for rain. My goal was to finish Sampler's Rembered Mary Allen 1818 by Labor Day and I put the last stitches in on Saturday, September 3. ...

It is still really hot here in North Texas. Luckily August is nearly over with and hopefully September will bring us some cooler temperatures along with some much needed rain.  We have only had around a half inch of rain in the past three months. So hot and dry leaving everything really brown. And all this heat really drains your energy level. But -- I did manage to get the pre-stitching completed on the Patrick's Woods "A Spot in the Mountains" class piece.  The finishing class is in mid-September so I wanted to make sure that I got this completed early. A Spot in the Mountains by Patrick's Woods Worked on 30-ct linen with NPI silks The band on the left with the Florentine stitch will be finished into a tri-fold pocket.  The accessories (on the right hand side) will include a needle case, a canoe shaped pin cushion, and a scissor protector. These were a lot of fun to stitch and looking forward to finishing them. In my previous post I said th...