A Work in Progress

Thanks to the Delaware Valley Historical Sampler Guild's retreat in Ocean City, Maryland at the end of April, I have lots of progress to show you this month.  The piece above is Carriage House Samplings  Alphabet.  I spent quite of bit of the retreat stitching those black boxes, and there was no frogging involved!  I have the separate patterns for each alphabet letter and most of them call for using Sampler Threads Bittersweet for the fill-in at the bottom of the block.  I was never crazy about the color (probably one of the reasons this piece has been in the WIP pile for so long) and while I was at the retreat, I auditioned a couple of different colors.  Sampler Threads Antique Rose won and I'm happy with the choice.  I also started this piece at the retreat.  I threw this in my bag at the last minute just in case I needed something with a large count when my eyes got tired.  I started it on Sunday morning before we left and eventually, it will become this. At home,

Here's what I worked on during this month's Friday Night Sew-In.  It's Sergei by Plum Street Samplers.  I find that I'm more and more drawn to pieces in a primative style these days and I'm having a lot of fun stitching this one.  I started it on my guild's retreat at the end of April and was stitching it with two threads over two.  When I got home, I decided I didn't like that and so started over with one thread over two.  I'm using the called-for Sampler threads and an NPI.  My goal is to finish it by the end of May. We have had lovely weather this weekend and it has felt so good to be home for a change. I've spent all or part of the past three weekends out of town at the guild retreat, moving my daughter home from college and my son's graduation.  All good things, but it does feel nice to have my house cleaned and to have some time to sit on the deck and read the paper.  I'm hoping all of you are enjoying the weekend as well!

It's been a busy week, starting ith my son's graduation and progressing to an overnight trip to Washington, DC in the middle of the week. I hadn't seen my sister who lives in Iowa for about 18 months. When I learned that she and her husband were going to be in DC for the week, I made plans to meet here there. A day or two later, she called and if I would like to be on a private tour of the White House with her. Who could pass that up?? So my husband and two of the kids tagged along and we all had a fabulous time. Then the new graduate had his wisdom teeth out today. I'm ready for some prolonged time on the couch with a stitching project. Pictures tomorrow, I hope. You can pop over to and join in the fun.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. Mine was spent at my son's college graduation. He made it through in four years and graduated cum laude with departmental and university honors. I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day!