Margaret and Margaret, Inc. freebie and site

Thank you to all who recognized who the designer of this piece could be. I found their website and wrote the owner of the story and how she had touched my life. YES, it's a Margeret and Margeret, Inc. designed sampler!!!! I fell in love with her samplers. She has over 60 or more. She has been designing for 26 years and still maintains the tradional Colonial/ Shaker type samplers throughout. Window shop her site by clicking below:

here are the links to her gorgeous Colonial/Shaker patterns, which include all kinds of samplers.

I found out she started designing in 1985 and this one in fact was designed that year.

1985 is also the year my firstborn son went to Heaven so even extra meaningful to me.

This morning I went to her site and she has a GREAT freebie.

She also has other samplers including a Jane Austen sampler, Adam and Eve, marriage, birth, samplers etc. Her prices are very reasonable. Very reasonable!

http://www.margaretandmargaret.com/

Click above for this site to browse

And here for her Christmas freebie "Peace on Earth"

It will definitely be one for me to celebrate this Holiday. It is in PDF format and just print and get your needles ready for a VERY pretty Christmas ornie. The way the wreath on the door of the house is designed is just too cute! She put this in the Just Cross stitch magazine in 2010.

I hope this finds you cozy and warm in your heart and soul,

Jennifer

My heart be still.........

Yesterday on my thrift store experience, I happened upon this 1 gallon bag of hearts. I love hearts! They are all about 2 inches and well sewn and someone put little course thread hangers on them as well which could be snipped off if I wanted to just keep in a bowl. I couldn't believe the price of 4 bucks for this big bag of hearts.
It's almost like walking through a quilt store and looking at alot of fabrics at once.
I could easily see these on a old rustic branch which has about 30 twigs to hang them on. I haven't decided what I'll do with them but I love them.

one black felt one

one of my favorite ones, the blue pinstriped.

and separately I found this heart pillow made of pieces of an old handmade quilt. It's about 5 x 6 inchs.

Got a little grundge on the back but......

Then I saw this picture frame and I'm always on the eye out for frames but the verse from Emily Dickinson in it touched my heart and I would keep it as is.

The little Teddy Bear has a torn foot and the verse says it all. It reminded me of what I wanted to go into the medical field for in the early 80's and how different it is now. It's a business and money is the bottom line, so very different from when I was choosing my career path years ago.

Wouldn't this make a good sampler verse? I like the thimble and needle there too.

Yep, this will go on my sampler wall, even though it's not stitched.

It is quite a heavy frame too and has some velvet as part of it that I need to clean up a bit.

Such a true statement.

Well, this morning I slept later than I have in a very long time. I think I got 10 hours of sleep, so I've caught up and still sleepy but have so much to do before that work week begins again.

It's a beautiful day here in North Ga again. The sun is beaming and the temps will be in 50-60 range. Tempting me of planting somthing. But I know it's only February still and my patience needs to grow because as all the mountain folk will tell you, it's always a risk for a frost until Easter, whenever it is. In fact, this year, I haven't even looked, to tell you the truth, at when Easter is.

I know the Daffodils are soon to be sprouting and in fact I'm heading out that way soon to see if I can see an inkling of one that gives me hope for Spring to come.

I'll leave you with a quote of a poem from a book I've been reading called In Search of Eden by Linda Nichols.

"Dorrie smiled, remembering how he used to read her his favorite poem. She remembered bits and pieces of it now. 'Vagabond's house' it was called.

When I have a house........as I sometime may

I'll suit my fancy in every way.

I'll fill it with things that have caught my eye

in drifting from Iceland to Molokai........

My house will stand on the side of a hill

by a slow, broad river, deep and still,

With a tall lone pine on guard nearby

where the birds can sing and the storm winds cry."

author, unknown

I'm Trying to Keep it Simple

I found this pretty, bright shiney red Christmas ornament at Walmart last week. It's sitting in my kitchen waiting for the tree. I love it! It's metal, shiney and has Peace written all the way around it a couple of times with zigzag cutout trees in between. I know this will look good by the fireplace at night.

Miss Abbie is vouching for peace too. Her first thing in the morning sweet look.

We almost have a regular kennel going here now!

Please ignore the safety manuals and the qsnap frame on the floor in the background! :0

But, anyway, we don't keep this kitty cubicle in the middle of the floor but tonight she played

Hide and Seek with her daddy with it. She looks like a rabbit and prounces all over the place.

AAABBBIIIEEEEE?

He says, ok, mama's wired and Abbie's wired. Or either he's saying, I've fallen and I can't get up.....one or the other.....LOL

Oh how I'm trying to keep it simple.....that is the holidays, but caught up in the after-work Walmart-experience tonight, I picked up the few (ok, maybe, more than that) items for the rest of our week. My sweet simple menu is planned. We will be carving and carbing as well!

I got drawn into the Christmas area again at Walmart. It's like I have a magnet on my shoes and I just slip right over there dreamily (is that a word?) looking at each and every ornament and visualizing it on different trees. Strange, but the ornaments are hypnotizing to me.

I'm ready now to put the tree up. Or I should say my kitchen island is ready, because it's full of stuff I've collected to go on the tree! ;)

After dreaming at the ornament section at Walmart, then I drifted to the magazine rack and looked through all the decorating magazines and quilt magazines.........oh, I guess for about an hour. Yep, that's put one in the mood for Christmas decorating really quick.

Cinnamon Coffee.....Yummy!

Finally started finishing some ornies tonight after supper. No cooking tonight. We had great barbeque pork, cole slaw, fries and beans from a local restaurant. So, more time to play with my sewing machine.

I knew that this would be my backing material but I had the idea to put some whole cinammon sticks into the pinkeep after I sewed on the backing for a great scent. I wanted to grundge up the appearance. So, I just popped open my coffee maker and reached in for some leftover coffee grounds and I rubbed them in the fabric randomly. As I rinsed, I remembered in a fleeting moment that I substituted the vase color in a Crescent Color thread which is not color-fast, so I continued on and it didn't run into the fabric.......well, let's say I got a little agressive with the grounds. Some of my threads are mushed from ironing. I think I ironed a bit much.

Freebie design from The Sampler Girl's Blog for November

DMC and Crescent Color threads

fabric 30 ct Vintage Examplar, coffee-stained by me

At first I planned to put a bunch of cinnamon sticks into the pinkeep but, this turned out too bumpy looking so I just put the stuffing and then put 3-4 sticks inside and with the coffee smell and then the cinnamon, it was yummy!

Here's the backing fabric.

So, onward now to finishing another ornie. I did find out that my new Singer machine goes at the speed of light. :0

I'm sure there is a place to slow it down but I have to find it. I'm loving the auto thread part of the machine! With this machine, it was zip, zip, zip and it was done!

I'm already dreaming about cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow~~~~~

My Fancywork Friday---wee hours--almost finished

I almost finished this piece, A freebie from The Sampler Girl Blog. Zoom on over and get your copy. I have the perfect fabbie to back it with . Can't wait to finish that leaf and then it's done.
I used an old scrap of 28 ct Vintage Exemplar Lakeside linen which is so soft to stitch with and the recommended DMC flosses. I did sub out the vase color to Brandied Pears-Crescent Colors.