Big finish, small start, and my cuties

First off, here's Ann Smith in all her glory.

Ann Smith Sampler by the Scarlet Letter

36ct Light Examplar

AVAS called for

Isn't she pretty?  (Sorry I'm a bad photographer.)

I'm so glad I stitched her!

Now I know the question is, what's next?  Here she is.

She's Margaret W. Brown by Milady's Needle.  I'm using 40ct vintage Palomino and AVAS 100/3.  It's my first time using the 100/3 -- nice stuff!

The linen color is washed out in the photos, but hopefully you get the idea.

My stitching sisters have suggested I have a Margaret sampler wall.  I may have to do that!  

I think the boy child is feeling at loose ends now that the play is over.  All this free time!  lol!  I keep telling him he needs to use that free time to do his college applications and practice for possible auditions. Hopefully he'll listen.  The boys did manage to visit another college on Friday, so that's good.  So far, the boy child has liked all the colleges we've visited.

I think Mia is very happy to have the boy child around more.

What do you think?  :D

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Nor'easter -- power, check. Internet, nope! Agh!

I should say right up front -- thank God we kept our power.  All around us, including people in our neighborhood, power was out.  Probably until today.  (And it was COLD!)  We lost our phones, internet and cable (all through the cable system), but we were with power, which I was sooooo grateful for!

No school for two days.  The middle school was being used as a shelter for those without power or heat.  And the schools have been on a one hour delay since school started again -- so the bus drivers can see any problems like downed power lines and trees.  Downed tree at the top of the street finally got removed last night.  Still downed stuff down the street.  And our internet is back.  Yay!!

Anyway, pictures.

It's amazing what you can accomplish with no internet.  lol!  You've seen the couple.

But don't you love these trees?

It was such a shock to go back to over two.  And a pleasure!  So much so that I'm not going to stitch the over one words or the two creatures on the bottom corners till the last.

Back to the nor'easter.  We were lucky.  We kept our power despite tons and tons of branches down in the yard -- and one leaning on the wires to our house too!  A ginormous branch landed on top of my car, but amazingly, there are only two small dents in the roof of the car.  I tell you though, it was very scary that day and night!  Constant cracks, and thumps and thuds.  Argh!

It's going to be a busy weekend here.  Step-MIL and the girl child are both arriving tomorrow for the weekend.  The boy child is in the midst of "h***" week for his high school play, Noises Off.  (The boy child is playing Timothy Allgood.)  Performances are tomorrow night and Saturday afternoon and night.  StepMIL, the girl child, the father type and I are all set to see the show opening night tomorrow!  Sunday is the memorial service for FIL.  So it's been crazy with rehearsals, drop off and pick up, cleaning, and more cleaning.  lol!  

I am still working my way through 691 blog posts in my blog reader.  AGH!  Amazing what accumulates when you can't get to the internet.  So my apologies for not commenting on your blogs this week.  I'll be back to normal soon and back to commenting.  (I didn't even count the number of emails in my inbox.  Cringe....)

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  Thanks also for emails I received asking how we fared through the storm.  I hope the rest of the week and the weekend are good for everyone!

Lots of over one! Also framing, animal wall, red walls, TUSAL

Ok, maybe I'm trying to squeeze too much into this post.  Maybe I should be spreading things out a bit.  Oh well, whatever.  I'll just forget to post it if I don't do it now.

First off, Ann Smith.  Oh, that over one takes forever!  All of the Adam and Eve panel is tent over one.  Ugh.  But I do have to say, it makes for a nice change.

I think that blue in the tree is brighter than the model shown on the Scarlet Letter site.  And A&E were supposed to be in this color that is all wrong with my fibers.  So I switched to a more fleshy color for them.  I think they're grateful.  (Who wants to be dishwater green?  lol!)

They're cute, right?  Now to do all the grass (tons of grass!), other vegetation, birds, and two more trees.  Oh boy!

I also picked up a couple more framed pieces from my framer at my LNS.  Here is Susan Rambo.

Here is a closeup of her frame.

This is the one my framer is so proud of.  Look at the frame!

And here is a closeup of that amazing frame (it's Ann Grant btw).

I had to use flash for these pics so the color is off, but you get the idea.

Now here is Sarah Rambo with Sarah Woodham (Shakespeare's Peddler).

They're hanging on a wall between two windows.  To their left is this -- Ann Grant with the Freds (Frederick and Frederica from CHS).

This area is my red wall grouping.  :D

Here is my animal wall.

At the top left is the Richmond Sampler (Anne Maria Clarke) by the Essamplaire, Jane Tindall to her right (Needlework Press), bottom left is Rebecca Robinson by the Scarlet Letter, and then Isabella Johnstone by the Needlework Press and in SANQ.  See all the animals?  :D

Now can someone give me more wall space?  A huge, enormous wall?  lol!

It's also time for the TUSAL for the end of October.

Behind are a couple of pieces of pottery made by a good friend of ours.  Alongside my ORT jar is another of my pincushions, appropriate for Halloween.  This cute bat fellow was made by Susan of Mouse Droppings.

The boy child is still busy with the school play that he's in.  Less than 2 more weeks till the show!   We've also slowly been visiting colleges for that big college application process.  It's been fun seeing various colleges, I have to say.  At least one I'd seen before with the girl child.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi!  I hope everyone has a safe, happy, healthy, and wonderful week.  (Mia says hi.)

Did someone say Adam & Eve?

Yes, Ann Smith is an A&E sampler.  Just haven't gotten to the Adam and Eve part yet.  It's coming though.  Here she is so far.

The A&E part comes after those red words down at the bottom.  And it's all over one.  Gulp!

In all the excitement of showing off my new framing last week, I forgot to post a pic of my samplers hanging up.  Would you like to see my A&E wall?  Or rather wall and a bit?  Ta da!

Let's see if I can do this.  On the wall on the left is the Jenny Bean Creation Sampler by Shakespeare's Peddler and under that, Guarding Eden by Examplars from the Heart.  Moving to the right, on top is Jane Atkinson by the Scarlet Letter and under it is Frances Eden by Handwork Samplers.  To the right of Jane is the Charlotte Clayton Sampler by the Northwest Sampler Guild.  Under that is Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers.  Under that, on the left is Margaret Pence by the Good Huswife and to the right is Fruit of the Spirit by Plum Street Samplers.  To the right of Charlotte is Sarah Esh by Carriage House Samplings.  Under that is Know Ye by La D Da.  And finally on the bottom right is Hallow Eden by Plum Street Samplers.  Whew!   And yes, Paulette, you are represented three times up there with your designs!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Finally, some framing. And Ann too

First, here is Ann Smith.

I am so loving her colors!  The words and the cloud parts are all over one.  I did what the directions said -- stitched the words in full cross over one, and stitched the motifs in tent over one.  Makes it much easier!  And it's what the directions said too!  (The threadwinders are from a talented artist, Betsy Krieg Salm.)

Such a pretty sampler!!

I forgot to mention last week that it was thanks to a good family friend that I was reminded of Ann Smith sitting in my stash.  She suggested I stitch it, so I pulled Ann out of the stash box and decided to go for it.  So thanks, Anne!

Another amazing thing about Anne.  We know her family and her through their having been family friends with the father type's family.  Anne and her siblings grew up with the father type and their parents were all close friends.  When I started my blog, Anne emailed me to let me know that she stitches as well.  Who knew?!  It's nice to have a fellow stitcher and crafter hiding among friends to discover!

This year has been a bad year for many it seems.  That includes my poor LNS owner.  What with the various issues we've been having and the various issues she and her DH (who does my framing) have been having, I haven't gotten any of my framing for a while.  I finally remedied that and picked up three pieces on Friday.  Here they are, in no particular order.

Isabella Johnstone.  And a closeup of her frame.

Next up, the Jenny Bean Creation Sampler.

And finally, Frances Eden.

It's hard to tell from the pic, but the frame is so perfect for this piece!

The father type helped me unpack all the framing when I got home.  He set various boobie traps  for poor Mia with the clear tape from the wrapping.  (Don't worry, it was a supervised thing and the tape and plastic were eventually thrown away for safety.)  I think Mia enjoyed herself, but she didn't like the tape sticking to her various body parts and made sure to shake them off very carefully if they so much as threatened to stick to her.  She finally settled down for a nap in the detritus.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone in the States has a great Columbus Day and that everyone in Canada has a great Thanksgiving.  Have a great week, everyone!

Mary finished, and two Anns

Here is Mary Allen all finished.

Mary Allen Sampler by Samplers Remembered

40ct RR Creme Brulee

NPI fibers

I'm so happy she's done!

Now for an Ann.  Do you remember Ann?  Ann Wheatley that is.  The SAL for Ann Wheatley at the Attic finished in September, but with all that's been going on, I forgot to post my finish of her on my blog.  Well, here she is.

Isn't she lovely?

I love her colors!  I used the fabric and fibers provided by the Attic for the SAL.

And now my new start.  Does anyone know who she is?

She's Ann Smith from the Scarlet Letter.  Here's a link to her full picture.   I'm using 36ct Vintage Light Examplar so that I don't go crazy when the over one parts come in.  There is a ton of over one.  I'm also using the AVAS called for.  I love her colors!  The inner gold border is supposed to be done in tiny eyelet stitches, but Marsha says you don't have to if you don't want to and I'm not.  Too time consuming!  

In other news, we managed to go visit a couple of colleges for the boy child this past weekend.  Which is a good thing.  We visited a massive college in the city, and a very small college north of us.  Very good contrasts.  The boy child seems to like both, which is great.  I'm sure there are more college visits in our future.

The boy child has been going full speed with school stuff, of course.  He got a part in the high school fall production of Noises Off, so every day after school has been 3 hours of rehearsal time.  Makes for busy times when you throw in his regular non-school orchestra rehearsals and his jazz band rehearsals in the evenings 2 nights a week.  Plus homework of course.  But he is loving it and that's the important part.  Let's just hope he gets all this college application stuff done in time!

Here is the boy child and Mia, sleeping partners once again.  The boy child hasn't been getting enough sleep as usual, so a nap happened to make up for it.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I always enjoy visiting with you all!