Workshop with Lorraine Mootz

What a great time we had this weekend! Lorraine Mootz came to the Azalea House Sampler Guild. Jill arranged to have Lorraine come to the Azalea House and give us a wonderful slideshow and lecture on her great collection of needlework tools. What a fount of information she is! In the afternoon we worked on an exquisite kit she designed for us from a needlebook in her collection. I can't wait to get mine done and use it for my new favorite John James petite needles. Years ago needles were very precious and well cared for. I like my little needles so well and I can't get them locally so I kind of know the feeling.

Several of us stayed the night at the Azalea House Bed & Breakfast and had the opportunity to have dinner with Lorraine and catch up on her busy life and hear about some of her work at the Celle Museum in Germany. I'd love to see her collection of samplers and tools and I have long planned to go to Celle with a German friend of mine and now I have another reason to put that trip at the top of my list.

Lorraine graciously gave me a consult on my Dutch sampler. I had been concerned about the church and it was so great to be able to talk to someone who has so much experience. I feel better about it now and happy that my instinct was right.

I also made some changes on my sampler again. I'm wondering if I'll ever be satisfied. A little problem with Caleb and Joshua bothered me, so I finally frogged it and changed them. Now their faces are a little more distinct and I moved the whole works up a little. I should have changed it when I first noticed it. It just kept nagging at me. I feel like I have to offer my very best for my 9th great grandparents...gee, I hope they were nice people!

I also added a cute little Weather Pixie to the blog. She tells me how to dress for the weather. She's so cute, I decided to put on another one to show me the weather in Virginia where most of my family is. Click on the pixie if you want to see your weather.

Staats Sampler - Progress

The designing process goes on. I've made some more changes. I knew it would be this way and I enjoy the freedom I have to change things around. I'm stitching down the left side and I decided the deer didn't stand out enough from the fencing, so I frogged what I had and made him a shade darker. I am pleased with the results.

I lined up the motifs with the border and HORRORS! I was off by a row and the mistake was in the very first motif. The little bird's neck is two rows long and I only put one. What to do? Well, it's my sampler, so I just deleted a line. I'm using PCStitch Pro to do the graphing and it wasn't very hard. I did have to juggle the motifs a little bit to move them into position without catching the motifs to the right of them, but it wasn't hard...the wonders of technology! I remember back when I charted everything by hand. I'd be trying to remember that my count was off as I started each motif.

It's going faster than I thought it would. Part of it is the size of the motifs. Most are the perfect size for an evening or two and it's hard to put it away when I am almost finished. I just have to see how the finished motif will look, so I've spent some late nights.

I'm going to a mini sampler retreat in Palatka, FL. It is our regular sampler guild meeting which is held at the Azalea House B & B. A few of us are going down the day before to get some extra stitching in. Lori Mootz is giving a needlebook class and she is also doing a slide show for our workshop. It should be a great class and lots of extra stitching too.

Aftermath of Christmas and New Years

Well, Christmas and New Years are over. All of the memories of 2005 are created and can never be changed. Each of my projects brings back the memories stored while I was working on them. When psychologists talk about memories, they say that odors bring back our strongest memories, but for me, it is my handwork. I have a crewel mirror I made when my son was a toddler. He's 38 now, but when I look at the picture, I see two little areas at the very top that I forgot to stitch because he managed to disappear while I and 7 friends were watching him. He was a little Houdini and he could disappear right before our eyes. I was checking the embroidery for errors or undone areas and I put it down to go and corral him. When I picked it back up I thought I had finished checking it and didn't catch the omission for about 10 years. Looking at the mirror brings back memories of a little blond head ducking around the corner of the townhouses.

After Christmas shopping was great as far as my samplers went. Mom & I went to Richmond, Fredericksburg and Williamsburg. Of course, we went to yarn shops and cross stitch shops. I went in one for some linen for my Christmas Sampler and on the sale table were back copies of "Fine Lines." If you are not familiar with it, it is a historical sampler guild. They were 75% off and I got 7, all they had. What a wonderful surprise! I took the magazine for several years, but then stopped when I started a couple of knitting magazines. These cover almost all the issues I've missed at a fraction of their cost. Now I just have to see if I can get the 2 or 3 between the time I quit and when these issues pick up. I really miss the magazine, but I'm downsizing and space is becoming a problem. Fortunately, they are small and don't take up much space.