Hope That Groundhog's Right!

 "Cause this days wasn't fun.  Dateline - Last Friday - We keep getting these Alberta Clippers; note to Alberta - you can keep your clippers, thanks very much!  This one came through, dumped about a half inch of snow (just enough to make the roads really dangerous and then the wind came in behind it.  Blew and blew and blew and blew!  Made it look like it was still snowing.  I took my quilts over to the quilters and passed a car up-ended in a ditch.  At first, all I saw was the State Trooper's cruiser and he was sitting on his backseat sideways, with his feet out on the ground.  At first, I thought there was something wrong with him, but as I came by, I saw the car.  Good grief!  Our back roads were really tricky and if you weren't driving smart, stuff like that could happen.  I am so ready for this to be last winter, it's not even funny.  And yet, there are still idiots out there wishing for a blizzard like we had three years ago.  Ugh, excuse me, do you remember that we couldn't get out of our houses for like three days????? 

 A friend of mine, my oldest friend, in fact, has a birthday coming up this year.  I found this chart and made it into this at right.  I used a 32 count Belfast linen, I think it is Amsterdam Blue, but didn't have a label on it, so that's just a guess.  I thought I'd use up some of the leftover Raven from Gentle Art that I have.  Well, I did, but I still have lots of leftover Raven.   It's going to be put in a regular photo frame.

 Oh, that reminds me - forgot to tell you, the Civil War quilt is at the quilters, as is the small tessellated quilt.  They'll be the first to be done and then I'll rotate in the one for my granddaughter's birthday.

 Customer has given me the tea towel, upper left.  It's Order of the Eastern Star.  She wants me to make something out of it.  So, The photo above is a print out from a blog - I THINK it's Gazette 94, I really, really think that it is, but if someone knows different, kindly let me know and I'll make the correction.

Anyway, I'm going to make it into the receptacle - maybe for mail?  I'm going to stitch the little bird on 32 count white Belfast using all five colors.  Then it will go between the two 30's prints to form the lower section.

 I was inspired by this project in the Sew Beautiful magazine.  But, I didn't like the style of the raincoat.  Good thing, because when I went to the sewing shop to look for a raincoat, it was only in the McCall's line that I could find a child's raincoat pattern.  Very frustrating.  Anyway, the SBM raincoat featured zipper teeth as trim on the raincoat.  There weren't many places to do that on the pattern I got, but I did do it in the raglan shoulder seams.  Don't know if you can really see that in the picture, but I used a yellow separating zipper - they have bigger teeth.  My husband thought that this was really cool.  Last summer I'd bought the fabric - the big polka dot and the floral to do a purse project.  But, the more I looked a the purse pattern, the more I didn't want to do the project.  So, had the fabric, and decided I wanted to use it for the raincoat (for my granddaughter, btw).  Neither fabric was vinyl.  So, I bought iron-on vinyl.  Sounds an oxi-moron, doesn't it?  Actually, it was really easy and initially I was super impressed.  I had to cut each piece from the fabric using the pattern pieces, then to iron vinyl to each piece and trim.  So, a lot of work.  But, few pieces, so it wasn't too big a deal.  The problem came when it was time to sew.  Being woman-handled so much during the sewing process, made the vinyl separate from the fabric AND it got really wrinkly.  I am going to try and iron it again, but don't hold out much hope.  There is a resource online for oil cloth in bright prints, so if I ever do this again (which I probably will as my granddaughter is only 6), I would get that to make another raincoat instead.  The iron-on vinyl would be really great for things you don't have to manipulate too much during the sewing process or something that is already made that you want to make more waterproof.  In the second picture, you can see the hood.  I went out and got a smaller polka-dot flannel that I made the lining out of.  If you don't line them, vinyl raincoats can almost feel clammy - at least, I think so.  You can see a bit of the yellow zipper teeth in that second picture.

A new project, is really an old one.  I love, love, love quilts by Piece O'Cake Designs.  So, back in the 90's I was very ambitious and thought I had enough time to do all these.  Fortunately I had enough sense to just put them away for another time - instead of getting rid of them.  I bought six of these Tulips in the Park kits - they come with all the fabric included!  Not enough for the whole quilt, but enough to make a lovely wall hanging.  These are applique.  So, I've gotten started with one (progress below).  This will probably be a slow go.

 







I don't like needleturn applique, nor do I like the way the fusibles make the fabric feel.  So, I baste under my seam allowances and then applique them down.  Makes for a lot of extra work, but it gets the job done for me. 



I also have the pattern for the Stars in the Garden quilt.  I have done one of the blocks and made a pillow.  I will enjoy making the whole quilt in the pretty bright colors shown.

 I like to use scraps of vinyl from photo albums and the like to make placement layovers.  This one is a mess from being folded up in a box for about 15 years, but it will still work.  I also have one last POC design, Flowering Vines.  I think that this will be my next applique project as it combines piecing with applique.

Here is my progress on Susan Singleton (whom I'm calling Gentle Susan) for Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year.  

Last year I worked on this needlepoint project.  I'm doing a really good job of clearing out all my unfinished objects.  This has become the scissor case it was meant to be, lined with red satin, it has coral ribbon ties and fits my Sajou scissors perfectly.   Front, back and inside.

Finally, this is my blogaversary month.  I think it's four years now.  I have a bunch of things to make into giveaways so keep your eyes peeled.  Hope you enjoyed!

I'm Done on Several Fronts; Moving Ahead on Others

I have finally finished Gabe's quilt. It came back from the quilter about a month ago.  She did a wonderful job.  I really can't say enough good things about her work.  I often tell her that she takes a sow's ear and turns it into a silk purse.  At left is an awful picture of what the quilt looks like - overall - on the front.

Now here's the long story about the picture...  10 years ago I had ankle surgery because I'd managed to lacerate all the ligaments on the right side of my foot.  So I have some eyebolts in my leg, just above the ankle where everything was reattached.  The other day I was walking down the driveway and the cat meowed at me from the top of the drive.  I did not want him to follow me down to the road, so I was looking to see where he was.  I was paying more attention to the cat than where I was walking and I "walked" sideways off the edge of the driveway which is about a 4" drop.  And my ankle started to go out in the direction that I know it is not supposed to go.  I then threw myself to the left and crashed down onto the blacktop.  I really hurt my left leg because the jeans I had on at the time have these brass buttons on the outside of the leg and they gouged and scraped on the outside of my left calf.  But, I thought my ankle was OK.  I went all day yesterday doing all sorts of chores and grocery shopping and no problem.  Last night it hurt a bit, but no biggy.  This morning I was limping on it.  So, my husband got my boot out of the basement and I'm back in it.  Hopefully the boot will stabilize the ankle long enough for it to feel better.  If not better in a few days, I'll have to go see a orthopedist and see if I've done it again.  So, for now I'm mucking around in the boot and it's not easy because something's been going wrong with my left knee over the last few weeks.  I have a feeling I'm going to the orthopedist one way or the other, but I'm trying to put it off.  So, can't hobble down to the clothesline and hang the quilt up and take a really decent picture - that will have to happen soon as I'm more mobile.  Next picture shows you what the quilting looks like on the front.  It's done in a really gorgeous saffron yellow.

And here's what that saffron yellow ends up looking like on the back -

It was Bettie's idea - as soon as she heard me call this the "Pirate Quilt" to use this pantograph.  We went through several different colors of thread, but finally landed on the yellow because of how nice it looked on the red of the back.

So the quilting helps support the "Pirate Quilt" theme - and so does this -

The pirate hat with scull and cross bones.  I tried to make it look NOT scary.

So, that's that finished.  I'll get it organized in a box soon as I have several things I need to ship out to them.

Here's my other finish:

Opus Magnusson and the gajillion trefoils in the border.  I'm quite happy with it.  In the end I ran out of Gentle Art Tiger Lily (green) and had to substitute with some Weeks Moss.  It's almost a perfect match in color, it just lacks the yellow of Tiger Lily.  Methinks that Tiger Lily is a discontinued color; I'll have to check on the GA website about that.  EDITED:  No, it was introduced in 2010 and is not discontinued.  Now I have to pull my invoices and give the final count of how many of each color I used.  That's on the back burner for now though.  This piece, I have decided, I will make into a wall hanging.  It's really big - about two and a half feet square, so would cost me an arm and a leg to frame - and then another arm and leg to ship to Seattle.  So, if I do it as a wall hanging, I will be able to roll it up and pack it in my suitcase when we go to visit the kids next year.  Thus saving all my arms and legs for another time.

And I've been working on the Civil War reproduction quilt, having finished several more blocks:

Four Square, above, was easy piesy - again.  I cut out all the blocks, the same size as the red ones.  Then sewed them all together like I did on the album block and then cut the whole thing down to size.  No tricky triangles!  This one helped me make up some of the time I lost on the more complicated blocks before it.

 Homefront, above, however, was a four-hour block.  The "petals" are appliqued and although it is simple, it is big and fiddly with the placement - since the book does not provide a placement template on the 13.5 inch square.

Cartwheel, above, WAS simple, but I made it difficult on myself by sewing the red and black parallelograms together - leaving me with set-in seams to do the rest.  But, that's my fault for doing it wrong.

Finally, Log Cabin.  Simple block, right?  Yeah, but it took a long time to cut all those pieces out, then I had to lay them out on the table and do them in exactly the right order.  Took me the whole two hours and then some to do that one.  I had to be so exact with the cutting, because the darker ( and some of the lighter) fabric is limited and I can't cut more than I absolutely have to use - 'cause I'm afraid I'll run out.  On the Cartwheel block, I actually did run out - of the red fabric - and had to come up with something different.  Grrrrr.

There is one more all applique block and three more easy blocks to do.  Two of those easy blocks will help me make up the time I lost on the Homefront block, but I also have a basket block to do with the handle as applique.  So I'm afraid I'll end up going over my predicted hours on the whole.  Keep your fingers crossed I make no more dumb mistakes - I have a total of 20 more blocks to go!!!

Last, but not least, I am going to blow my own horn.  My DAR Regent asked me earlier this year to print out all the entries I'd made for our chapter blog.  As fellow bloggers, you'll know that is not easily done.  What I did was screen capture and then stitched together in my photo editor.  If anyone knows an easier way, please let me know, 'cause I'll have to do it again early next year.  Well my regent submitted the prints in a little notebook at the State Conference held last month.  We DAR ladies are very competitive!  My chapter held it's picnic earlier this week and the regent was telling us about all the awards we received at State Conference.  And the blog I do for the chapter was named best in the state!  I was SO pleased.  My chapter sisters give me an enormous hand in getting the blog done by getting information and pictures for me, so don't get the idea that I do it all on my own.  But it was awful nice to have it recognized as the best.

The regent and I are working on finalizing the official website for the chapter, so hopefully soon I'll be able to tell you all to check it out.  Until then - hope you enjoyed!

Doing What I Want to Do

I have taken a vacation from my obligations.  Sort of.  Still have a couple of meetings I have to attend, but other than that, I'm doing what I want to do for the next two weeks.  Not going anywhere, just staying home and doing stuff that I've been putting off.

Like this project:

I was watching an episode of Blue Bloods on CBS last year.  Nate Berkus had said once that when he watches T.V. shows, he's always looking at the set design.  Honestly, I think that's way too confusing, especially when you can look at Tom Selleck instead.  But, this particular scene didn't have Selleck in it, so I felt obligated to follow Nate's advice and check out the set design.  And I saw a framed piece hanging on the wall of this victim's apartment and went "Oh, Wow!  That's cool!"  Ever since, I've been gathering up all the old keys I can find around the house (my husband had quite a few) and picked up some at tag sales.  Then I had to look and look for the shadow box I wanted (a long narrow one).  I finally found this one at Joanne's this past weekend.  Regular price was $35 (which I thought was unreasonable), but it happened to be on sale and I had a coupon for an extra 10% off regular and sale price items.  So, I got it for under $20.  Which I thought was very reasonable.
 

To put it all together, I used my drill, with a fine bit.  I put the keys on the display board until I had a layout that I liked.  Then I transferred all the keys off to my work table.  Put a couple of keys back on the display board and drilled holes just above them.  Then I took some fine, vinyl coated wire (in black) that I'd had for a l-o-n-g time; a manageable size, like a foot in length.  I am pretty sure it is some sort of scrapbooking wire.  Keeping a tail of the wire in the back, I poked the wire through a drilled hole and pulled it all the way to the front (except the tail in back) then slid on a key and put the wire back in the same hole to the back.  Then moved on to the next hole.  I repeated with all the drilling and the keys until I had them all attached to the display board.  Used several lengths of wire in this process. The nice thing about the wire is that it doesn't have much of a profile on the back and when you put the display board back in the shadow box frame, and then put the backing on it, there's no difficulty getting it all closed back up.  One thing I made sure to do was if the keys had some cool writing or design on them, that went to the front side.  And I still have plenty of room to add more keys as we find them.

I also have a collection of Patriotic American jewelry due to my DAR membership.  I just love big sparkly flags and red-white-and-blue beads!  I had put it all into a shadow box because it's so pretty it needed to be treated better than just hanging out in a jewelry box.  The only problem with that was the shadow box I used was too small to leave room for expansion and the jewelry had to be put in more permanently so that it would stay in place.  The problem with that is that I wear my jewelry.  I think that I figured out a new way to do it so they can be on display and wearable; I'm going to work on that here during my stay-ca.

Second Thing I did (well, actually I did this before I did the keys, but . . . ) was to finish the blocks for my Julia's Ribbons quilt.  Remember, I began working on this last winter.  I'd really like to finish it before this coming winter ('cause I have other cool stuff that I want to get to!)  So, here are the blocks -

The block here on the left is my favorite one.  I just love the background fabric that is on this one.  Wanted to have more of it!  I went back to the store, but they didn't have anymore left in stock - and you know what that means . . . so, no, I decided I didn't want to spend all that time just to add to my already too-large stash.

Lastly, I've been stitching in the evening on Opus Magnusson.  I now have a complete width of the whole.  Two more rows to go!  That means nine more months of stitching on it!  Yippie!  It will remind me of maternity!

This one has quickly lost it's charm for me.  That tiger should be orange and it really bothers me.  Not enough to unstitch it and restitch it, but it really bothers me.  I'm sure I'll just love it when I'm done - right now I'm just boo-hooing.  Maybe I'll have a better outlook at the end of my vacation. Hope you enjoyed!

Ho Boy :(

While I was sailing away on the blue medallion of Opus Magnusson, horror of horrors, the stitches aren't where they're supposed to be!  Ho Boy!  Why do I have too many spaces open on this thing?  And then realization - oh, MY GOD, I've stitched this thing wrong.  The way I'm  working this whole chart is to stitch the black in a section first, then fill in with color(s).  And when you take the black out of the linen, it leaves not exactly a stain, but a bit of a shadow of where it was.  No problem if you're stitching over it, but what happens if you're not?  Your piece ends up with permanent 5 o'clock shadow, that's what.   What to do, what to do!?

Well, like a true off-roader, I decided to make my own path (so to speak).  I thought about it a whole day.  When I came back the next evening, I'd decided that I was not going to pull out the black that I'd already stitched - I'd have to make the best of it.  That also meant that I could not do the medallion as charted.  I'd have to come up with a replacement.  I sat that evening and studied the chart.  I realized that I don't particularly like all the medallions - sounds so much like me, doesn't it?  So, if I did one of my own to cover my mistake and then eliminated some and duplicated others, then I'd be OK.  Using the stitching I'd already done, I created a new medallion.  In this close-up photo you can see where I overstitched with Straw Bonnet (a close match to my linen color) to cover some of the black stitches that had to go.  There is a height difference, but I think looking at the sampler as a whole, you won't notice them.  I have also decided to change the medallion colors.

If you go to the designer's webpage you can see the original design and compare it to what I did.  The simple fact of the matter is that while the DMC color choices were OK for this chart, I don't like all the equivalents that were chosen to replace them in the Gentle Art colors.  Namely Cider Mill Brown that is used for the tiger, etc. and Straw Bonnet that was used for the horse, etc.  The Cider Mill Brown doesn't have a shred of orange or copper and the Straw Bonnet is missing the yellow.  In this picture I've blurred the DMC color numbers so I'm not giving away the designer's information, but you can see the color comparisons and the colors I've added.

Since I'm not re-stitching that tiger, the next best thing is to jazz up the rest of the color scheme.  That's why I added the green (GA Tiger Lily) and now I've added a yellow (GA Butternut Squash).  I'm also going to use more of the red (Buckeye Scarlet) throughout.  And that's it.  I'm not going to make anymore changes.   Oh, forgot to mention I changed the arrows.  I think these look a bit more realistic.  I am so bad!  Think my blue medallion works with the others?  Here's my progress so far:

I keep telling myself that this sampler is for a man and while my son is sensitive to design, he is still a man.  He was showing me his wall quilts that I made him; the ones that hang in "his room".  I was really at a loss as to why they hang in "his room" and not just any room in the house.  To be honest, I made them a long time ago and had forgotten exactly what quilts they were.  He brought them to the computer and showed me.  Instantly I remembered AND knew why they were all in his room.  One was fishing themed and the other woodsy/camping/hunting.  Uh Huh.  So he's really not going to care about the colors in this sampler that much - and - good news - it'll fit right in with the rest of the decor!

I'll pick up AotH next - the August block!  Hope you enjoyed!

Introducing Opus Magnusson

In June I tossed Opus Magnusson, by Long Dog Samplers,  into my rotation.  I've decided that I like rotating.  It helps me stay in love with each of my projects and helps them to not become chores to finish.  Here's the progress:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright!

This piece will be (at some future time when it is finally finished) for my eldest son who adores Celtic design.  It speaks to him, as it does to me.  Back in my art school days, I pursued learning how to draw knotwork and it is quite challenging.  You will note that I have made slight design changes.  The flowers are supposed to be the same colors as the tigers.   That was too much gold in one place for me so I changed the petals to shades of blue and added one color to the scheme - green.

Here's something I've noticed lately - many of the European designers just print a picture of their gridded chart in color on the cover of their charts.  Most American charts have a photograph of the completed piece, with frame and fru-fru.  Interestingly I have seen several charts by Little House Needleworks in what I will call "the European style".  I chose this piece based on the colors I saw online of the chart.  And I imagine that if I had used the DMC colors, I'd have come much closer to getting the same colors shown on the chart.  As it is, and this is my fault for not taking more time to prepare for a project (as I usually do) -

I used the recommended Gentle Art thread colors.  Now, does that tiger (above) look as golden orangy as she does on the picture of the chart?  So I am a little disappointed.  Too late to make the color change though.  There's a LOT of work on that girl and her cubs.  The darker blue (above) is GA Presidential and it is shown as a purple color on the chart.  So, I guess the grapes will look more like blue balls than actual grapes.  I'm OK with that - and the rest of the colors.  But I decided that I really wanted the leave to be GREEN leaves.  So, they'll all be stitched with GA Tiger Lily. 

The last change to be made is the border.  I will be dead before I finish this piece if I stitch that border.  So, I am not going to.  I will do one using all the colors in that bargello band that is the first border on the top of the piece.  The one that looks a little like W's and M's.  The reason I'll do that?  Those are my son's initials.  I will not cross stitch the border, I'll do it in bargello.  That should make it go a little faster. 

Sherry

In other news, my stitchy friends and I went on our long awaited road trip this last week.  We headed down to Waynesboro and visited Cross Stitch Station, owned by Terry.  The shop is small, but has a huge amount of stuff packed into it.  And the owner and staff are VERY friendly.  It took us about an hour and a half to drive down from the Winchester area and we yak yak yaked all the way, so it didn't seem that long at all.  Sherry greeted us in her friendly southern drawl "Ya'll come on in" when we got there at 10AM.  Two and a half hours later we fell out the doors!  I managed to pick up the last AotH chart that I need to complete the project as well as an older Loose Feathers pattern.  I saw the Award of Merit charts, but thought they were a bit too dear for my budget now.  One thing I have to say about BBD charts - they do produce some of the finest charts that I have ever worked with, so they are worth paying a little bit more.

We looked over every single inch of that shop.  The best part was that when one of my friends said she was interested in learning more about punch needle, Terry was right there talking about how easy it is with this special needle that you can dial down the pile and even went so far as to get her own project out and not only give a demonstration, but allowed my friend to give it a try.  I'd tried it a few years ago and found it more difficult than it was worth, but I have to admit, although I personally didn't try it, Terry made it look really uncomplicated and my friend understood all of her directions. 

Terry Demonstrates Punch Needle

So we had a wonderful time in the shop.  I had a 6PM meeting, back home, so we were a little pressed for time for lunch if we wanted to have time at our next destination.  Terry had recommended the Purple Foot or the Tail Gate Bar & Grill.  However, we ended up at the Shoney's.  I had a surprisingly good hamburger there.  I mean really, really good!

Then, we were off to the Factory Antique Mall.  It was kinda sad to go in there.  I think the economy has really got antique dealers down.  Almost every stall had some sort of sign up saying so much percent off.  Some were up as high as 50% off.  I did get a few good buys on stitchy antiques.  I'll show them to you over the course of the month. 

Junes AotH

I've now reached the halfway point of the Anniversaries of the Heart series.  Here's Junes segment -

 

Ann is my oldest friend; I've known her since we met in 7th grade at Luther Jackson.  Her birthday is in June (I have to remember to call her and give birthday salutations!).  Her initials - A - C - B - W - are up on the top left and right.  You may have to go to the bigger version of the picture; they're stitched in a very light portion of Sweet Petunia.  My ancestor for this month is Rebekah Alspach Kershner.  She was a craftswoman a lot like me - not a good looker, but well accomplished.  

She made a coverlet that came down through my mother's side of the family that although it was not very well cared for, by the time I got it, it was still in excellent shape.  It is now in the hands of the Winterthur Museum.  

Rebekah Alspach Kershner about 1865

This will sound awful, but over the last 40 or so years, whenever I have looked at this photo, I have been reminded of the Ruth Buzzi character Gladys Ormphby on Laugh-In; the old woman on the bench that beat the old man with her purse.  

Rebekah was born in Berks (now Schuylkill) County in Pennsylvania on June 3rd, 1802 to 27 year old George and Anna Rosina.  She was three  when her grandfather, Jacob (a veteran of the Revolution), and his brother, Michael,  picked up their families and migrated out to Ohio.  Rebekah's father, George, was 27 when they migrated.  They are among the first pioneers of Fairfield County.  Jacob and Michael purchased a sawmill on the Hocking River called Rock Mill.  Turns out now that it is the oldest in the state.  The one standing now is not the original one that Jacob and Michael owned and operated.  Rebekah's father and uncles, as well as probably working in the mill from time to time, were also farmers.  The family were probably financially comfortable.

When Rebekah was about 13 years old, she made a coverlet - beautiful in red, white and blue, on an 8-shaft loom.  And she was able to afford commercially made wool; probably imported.  The coverlet shows that the blue came from two different dye lots that were not used to make part of the pattern - a dead giveaway to commercial wool.  Rebekah probably made the coverlet to place in her dower chest, a Pennsylvania-German tradition.  After my mother's death in 1996, I took this coverlet up to Winterthur and met with Linda Eaton the Director, of Museum Collections and Senior Textiles Curator.  It was Linda who told me about how old the coverlet was and how it was probably made.  Why Winterthur in Delaware when Rebekah was essentially from Ohio?  Well, my father was from Delaware so I have connection that way.  And Rebekah's husband has a connection to the museum itself.

Daniel Kershner (also spelled Kerschner) was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1802.  It's hard to tell if he or his father, Jeremias, went to Ohio first; Jeremias migrated in 1822 and died in Fairfield County in 1826.  Jeremias was brother of Conrad Kershner whose farmhouse rooms are part of the Winterthur Museum.  Daniel was 24 years old when his father died and that was the same  year her married Rebekah.  He could have come to settle his father's estate in Ohio and met Rebekah, or the family could have come enmasse in 1822.  At any rate, Daniel was a very successful farmer.  in 1860 his personal wealth was valued at about 50 million dollars in today's money!  Don't get excited, none of that made it's way down to me.

Here is a photo of the coverlet at the foot of a bed that is on display in the Kershner Parlor at Winterthur.  Isn't it awesome?!  I am just tickled pink that it is somewhere that it is well taken care of (i.e., NOT stored in a plastic dry cleaner bag - ahem!) and that it is appreciated.  Currently Winterthur has a special tour - Distinctive Collections of Southeastern Pennsylvania - where you can see the Kershner rooms and the coverlet.  I'm going to ask my husband if we can go up one of these weekends before the tour ends on June 30.  The loom in the picture may have been the type Rebekah would have used to create the coverlet - I'll have to check on that.  Photo by Linda Eaton, 2011.

Back to Rebekah - family tradition has her as a herbal healer, medicine woman.  She may have even been a mid-wife.  Looks the capable sort, doesn't she?  They would have been married in Pennsylvania-German (Deutsch) tradition, in the Lutheran church.  Their marriage occurred in October of 1826 - Jerimias had passed away the previous January.  Perhaps the wedding took place in October after the harvest was in.  They made their home, after Rebekah and Daniel (my great, great, great grandparents) had eight children.  Between 1830 and 1850 they moved to Circleville in Pickaway County.  The name was spelled Kershner/Kerschner, but it was pronounced CASH-ner.  It was written phonetically in the 1850 census and I haven't found them yet in 1840. Rebekah died in 1871 and Daniel nine years later.

Oops!  Forgot to mention that I made a few color changes on this one!  Let's see - for Crescent Cinnamon Toast, I had substituted Weeks Hibiscus.  When I ran out of that I used Gentle Art Sweet Petunia which matches the lighter shades on Hibiscus.  And, for Crescent Jakey Brown, I used Weeks Cinnabar.   Hope you enjoyed!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I've been slogging away on The Chase for the last few weeks.  I'm moving on to something else this weekend, just until the 1st of June when I go back to AotH.  First, how many of you think that The Chase is two deer chasing each other across the greensward?  I have raised my hand along with you.  Here's an image from the cover of the kit ...

I decided that I'd do a bunch of the grass instead of leaving all of it until the end to do because that would be REALLY boring.  So, I'm stitching away at my grass, which I know, looks different from the grass on the original.  I don't think it's better or worse, I just think it's different.  I also thought that it was best to work from the background out - do the stuff that is supposed to be furthest back and then stitch things on top of that, or, I guess, forward of that?  You know what I mean - so that it gets a more dimensional look.  Anyway, got around to stitching the deer.  One of  the deer is done with two colors.  I decided to do that one first.  I had given some thought earlier on to switching the doe and stag.  But, decided that the stag's antlers would come too close to the leave on the tree.  Well, girls chase guys on Sadie Hawkins Day, right?  I left it alone.

It wasn't until I was actually stitching the "doe", concentrating on not messing up the two tone effect, that I realized she wasn't a doe at all.  It's a dog - and that's what The Chase is all about - a dog chasing a stag.  So, Siobhan, get your smart phone out and ask it to pronounce this word: D-U-H !!!  Oh, my goodness I felt so dumb when I realized that the two tails were different.  But, both of them were supposed to be stitched with the same threads (albeit the dog was done in two tones).  So, even though I said I wasn't going to, I actually did make a change.  First of all, I tried to give the dog a more dog-like head.  The head drawn on the linen was almost exactly the same as the stag's.  That made it fit the ears better.  Then I replaced the stag's colors (taupes) with DMC 975 and 976 which I think are golden browns (yep, just checked - light and medium golden brown).  I thought they were more deerlike colors.  I also added a bit more cream on the tail and ears - where there was none called for.  But, that's it!  I'm not changing anything else!  Here's my overall progress this month:

When we went to Woodlawn Plantation I picked up the Sandra Sullivan design - Ferry Farm and stitched it up.  It wasn't on my list of things to do, but I snuck it in there anyway.  It was pretty quick, about three days worth of stitching.  It's been finished awhile.  I wanted to put it into a frame I knew I had, but I couldn't find the frame.  I knew it would look great and it does!

Here 'tis!  It is stitched on 40 count New Castle, white.  The frame measures 4 inches by 3 and a half inches.  At the bottom the design said WASHINGTON.  But, I decided that this was supposed to pay homage to Ferry Farm and I could just fit it in.  The Washington family members are nodded to through their initials.  Colors not changed, initials the same, just put in the farm name.  I love it.  Will keep it on my desk.

Finally, I've got another one off my finishing list.  It's my own design, The Bee Line March Sampler.  Framed so I can photograph it and get the charts put together.

Many of the same elements as the box I designed for the DAR competition; added Washington's Headquarters flag, the leaf border - they all represent trees that would have grown in the forests the men hustled their way through between Shepherdstown and Cambridge - and the map indicating the general path they took.  Have a great weekend - Hubbs and I are doing something fun tomorrow then work, work, work on the house.    Oh!  Forgot one thing.  Does anyone know what kind of linen that is that I'm stitching The Chase on?  I need to get ahold of some - blank and don't know what it's called.  Thanks!  Hope you enjoyed!