I'm Speechless today when the mail came

I opened the mail this morning and was

 shocked.

 Speechless.

 Overcome with Emotions.

All at one time!

This was inside a folder from Carol M from PA and she sent the most touching note with it, as well.

It's a work pouch!!!!!  I can't believe it!! I would never be able to get one this beautiful. I honestly was looking at one of the websites the other day at a new pouch and didn't order it and so glad because this is my most favorite and unique, awesome and gorgeous work pouch of all time now!!!!

I cannot thank Carol enough for the thoughtful work and words, time and love she put into this pouch.

Take a look-see

The fabric is quilted and thick, and look at the Adam and Eve sampler!

Then I looked up and saw Feathers in the Nest with the date and the verse and my heart was so touched.

I think it stopped for a beat or two.

It snaps at the top!

I LOVE THE COLORS!!!!

And it's the PERFECT size for my medium qsnaps or frames and all the materials, scissors, everything to take with me.

I so needed to read that verse at the top. I need to see it often because my earth father well..... a bit the opposite. I need to see this reminder because, honestly, through some hard times its, difficult to imagine the grace that our Heavenly Father has for us and how different he is from our own father.

She said that Anita at Everything Cross Stitch from Fredricksburg, VA did the finishing of the bag.

The pattern is from a Mar/April Just Cross stitch magazine 1985.

Did you know that the house we live in now was built in 1985?  I had no idea at the time of course as I was in  another marriage in another time and in a vacuum I won't go through again here. My son, Aaron, was born in that year too. In 1984 and 1985, I was saying prayers daily that were answered in His own time. The perfect time.

In her sweet note, she wrote that she is praying for me and I do so need that Carol, thank you, thank you, thank you! We all do and I will pray for you too.

This bag is so special and I will never forget all the love that was put into it either.

And Deb at The Threadgatherer's Blog......no, girl, you can't have it either!!!! LOL (Deb loves Adam and Eve samplers)  ;)

I opened this at the perfect time and place, Carol!  Thank you again and I promise to carry this with me (probably everywhere) as I try to sneak in some stitching in the car and on the go to.

Speaking of on the go~~~~~~

I just finished up Miss Frances here and where there's a will, there's a way.

Designer~~ The Scarlet Letter

reproduction sampler

Frances Bliss 1778

This was in my stash for at least 3 years. I bought it as a kit with the cotton floss and the linen. The copyright was 1983. It took a bit of ironing to get that wrinkle out!

 I started it, then got stumped on the herringbone stitch and then this week picked it back up and, I promise you, I got plenty of practice as all the blue lines are herringbone stitches!

Now, as you know, reproductive  reproduction samplers frequently have misspellings and odd letter shapes and skips the J, etc. so I did stitch this EXACTLY as the instructions directed with the DMC threads included and on 25 count unbleached linen (included with the kit at the time).

So for clarification, yes, the sex word is in the sampler for the age of six.

I'm not completely sure what the mother must of thought of the word sex instead of six when Frances showed her the completion. 

According to the history of this sampler, Frances's mother was named Abigail!!!! I like that name of course.

You can see the lighter color threads.

But all the herringbone was done in DMC 931.

 SKY BLUE.

As in our beautiful weather for today!

And finally, if you would like to win a brand new (reproductive reproduction) pair of these scissors from Pineberry Lane, remember deadline is Feb 28th at midnight for entry.

 See Feb 15th post for details.

Amazing grace,

Jennifer

From Abigail Renee, I'm going to stay

 Reasons I stitch slower at night:

Bodyguard saw this and thought it picture-worthy, so he got the camera to show you why extra white fibers end up in the samplers!

She rests her head on my hand and moves up and down with the needle without batting an eye..........

Well, maybe.....a little. She likes to be in the spot light all the time. The little Stinker.

A little drool on 25 count unbleached linen is just what adds the aging effect.

Now I've said my ABC's, won't you come and play with me?

Yoga anyone?

Torn between two lovers

very few with the mild flu as you see the before pic.

And I left this one here but will be back, promise!

Forever Hope sampler

designed by Feathers in the Nest, in process

~~~dedicated to survivors of domestic violence~~~

One day, I will pick this up and continue on. I haven't forgotten this sampler. No mam.

But it's still waiting, loaded in my large lap frame and waiting for me to come back and work on it again. It is so far the largest sampler I'm designing.

Today though my heart is in herringbone and alphabets, and Francis and Lydia are calling  my heart.

Didn't get to work on this but about 20 stitches last night. Tuesday afternoon I started getting flu symptoms and I kept mentally trying to push it out because I had a flu shot but I knew by the end of the day with fever and the aaaaaaaches, I mean, bone-grating aches, that I must have a mild case of the flu.

Worked yesterday, with prayer and Advil and then came home last night and besides putting in these few stitches you see, went to bed and slept 13 hours.

I guess I needed it.

This morning feel a little better and while I'm resting will pick up Miss Francis and Miss Lydia sampler again because I really love them so much and methinks my next cup of tea will be with these kind ladies today.

The give away comments are cool. I love hearing how you like to stitch best! Almost 400 now and counting......LOVE, love hearing from ya! and remember the deadline is on Feb. 28th midnight.

 Name will be announced on March 1st.  So, still some time.

A direct link is found if you click HERE to post.

Back to my tea, Fiddle DD,

Jennifer

Simple Samplers for simple days

Tonight I picked up a simple sampler which I've had for a long time, and decided to try to conquer the heringbone stitch as demonstrated in the pattern booklet. Tought I would work on it more. The pattern is actually a reproduction sampler and the sampler is framed separately. The designer is The Scarlett Letter.

The Frances Bliss and the Lydia Hinckley samplers

Here are some pics:

Here are the DMC cotton colors. I had bought this as a kit with the Scarlett Letter fabric as well.

I like their fabric as it's firm enough to stitch in hand without a hoop. I do need to press the fold out before I get into the next row though. Just noticed that. This is 25 count unbleached linen. I'm following recommendations in the pattern for 2 over 2 but I can tell that the herringbone rows could easily use only 1 thread; however, again it makes more texture to the piece.

  I love the way The Scarlett Letter gives details and history of samplers.

You know, in old samplers, they were usually stitched by very young girls and frequently there are misspellings and of course with reproduction the original is retained. The top one obviously was stitched by a 6 year old! Can't imagine. But she misspelled and has SEX in the line. I had to look at that twice to make sure.

The chart states that the sampler most likely was separated like this due to scarcity of fabric and threads.

She reproduced this in 1983.

I've got quite a few rows of practice for the herringbone stitch.

I've seen several variations on the herringbone stitch but this is what is recommended in the pattern.

I'm hoping Bodyguard is going to make me some odd size frames for these when I finish because they look best just like this, close to the frame itself and hung separately, but together on my sampler wall.

I hope you found something interesting to work on today.

I actually started feeling like I was run over by a Mac truck this afternoon with sore throat and fever. But I'm trying to pretend it's really not anything at all......don't have time for sick.

:O

I think I felt all 208 bones in my body ache today.

Fiddle D D

Tomorrow is another day!

Ye Olde Irish Love sampler

Ye Olde Irish Love sampler

designed by Feathers in the Nest

copyright 2011

This morning I awoke with my Irish eyes o' smiling as its bright and sunny outside and I completely slept through the night!!  So with my tea this morning, I played with this design and thought I'd share for all those who like to stitch up some smalls for St. Paddy's Day or if you're Irish and love your heritage for all year!

My favorite color is pink so I thought this would compliment the green well. I have a pink mother-of-pearl pendant that I got last year on Ebay from someone who went to Ireland and just didn't want it anymore and selling it. That's called the Luck of the Irish, for me as it was sterling silver and a great deal/oh, so pretty heart.

I'm imagining this cool as a pillowkeep or pinkeep for a basket, backed with Shamrock fabric.

Suggested colors are:

Crescent Colors cotton (CC)  Secondhand Rose (pink)

CC Antique Lace (very light shade)

CC Steamed Broccoli (green)

Suggested count:

your favorite

Suggested linen:

Irish linen, of course, in Antique white

Enjoy!

P.S. Please remember pattern not for sale, duplicated only by needle and accredited to Feathers in the Nest designs. Thanks so much!

If you would like to share your finishes, email me at:

feathersinthenest@yahoo.com

with a pic of your finish and I will be glad to share the love!

till later,

Jennifer

Do you ever have times like these?

Ready for the cloudy days to turn sunny again.

Ready for my daffodils to bloom.

Ready to go for daily walks again in the evenings as they get longer.

Ready to start another stitching project, or maybe just finish one I have stashed.

Ready to see what's back from the Nashville market this past weekend!!!!!!

Ready for those NEW Crescent colors--saw a pic of the latest 6 colors and they are pretty!

Ready to sleep an entire night without waking up at 3am like it's 6

I

think

I'm

getting~~~

Spring

Fever.

Chocolate~~ a truly, organic experience!

This afternoon I craved chocolate.

Well, actually, since yesterday.

 And so, I had some different chocolate chips in the pantry to try out for a while now. I picked up the Ghirardelli chips from Walmart~!

Usually, make them from Tollhouse.

Bye, bye Toll house.

Hello, Ghirardelli. I'm so glad we met today.

I opened the pantry door several times, lazily looking back over at the fire in the fireplace and then I caved to bake cookies instead of read, stitch or anything restful!

I HAD to have chocolate chip cookies and so I went to slinging flour and sugar in the kitchen.

Well, it was already a mess from lunch so.....what the heck. Just a little more to clean up! : 0

So here's the recipe and then you'll see why here.

I added in maple flavoring instead of vanilla.

I also added lots of chopped pecans.

I always do. Part of the experience is just chopping them up. Great stress reliever...LOL

and there ya go when all combined.

Stirring in the large chips....and I mean larger ones.

The Tollhouse ones are much smaller.

Now, THESE are chocolate chips!

Made WAY too much for the two of us. Like 6 dozen. 72 cookies.

 The recipe says it makes 4 dozen (my cookies were smaller) of which I didn't read that part yet because we could do well with 2 dozen. Lesson learned. Split the recipe.

And guilt-free.  All organic, right?  Just natural ingredients.

Even the package put this on there, so I'm sure it's healthy, right?

The pecans for protein.

The chocolate for our seratonin levels.

The 2 sticks of butter.......well.......I'm not sure on trans fat-free there....

But they were quite moist and tasty.

Would ya like one with a cuppa tea? or a tall glass of milk?

We have plenty to share!

Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

(makes 4-6 dozen of cookies depending on size)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2  and 1/4 cups of unsifted flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

2 sticks of butter ( not margerine), softened

3/4 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of brown sugar, packed

2 tsp of vanilla OR maple flavoring--I used maple

2 eggs

1 bag of Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Chips

1 -2 cups of chopped pecans (can use walnuts, I use pecans)

Stir flour with baking soda and salt and set aside. Beat butter with sugars  on medium speed until creamy. Add flavoring and eggs, one at a time, mixing in together well.

Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by teaspoon or tablespoon (depending on size desired) to a baking paper lined cookie sheet. (Baking paper helps the bottom of the cookie stay lighter)

Bake for 9 minutes. No more. For chewier cookies, bake 1 minute less.

(That's just my opinion on that, but usually works for me)

Then, write a Dear John letter to Tollhouse and explain that you must go organic now, so all natural-- Ghirardelli, will be in your future..............