Free Cross Stitch Pattern!

~MAY DAY SAMPLER~

Stitch count - 145 wide X 121 high

Copyright 2009 - With thy Needle & Thread

"The fair maid, who the first of May goes to the fields at break of day & washes in dew from the hawthorn tree, will ever after beautiful be."- Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme

Tis hard to believe that in a few short days it will be May 1st....May Basket Day! In celebration of this day, I am offering to you a FREE cross stitch chart for your stitching pleasure! Use the above chart as a guide...be creative & use your own color palette. How about an ivory basket with buttery yellow flowers, robin's egg blue birds & white border stitched on a tea-dyed background?

I would love to see finished pieces of this design...please email pics & I will post them right here on my blog. You are welcome to sell finished works of this design, but please give credit to With thy Needle & Thread/Brenda Gervais as the designer. This pattern may not be printed & resold or used as free bag stuffers...thank you!

PATTERN PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS: double click on chart photo, then go to FILE. Select Print Preview. Select "landscape" and then shrink to fit at 50%. Click PRINT. In page set up make sure margins are set at smallest possible.

with thy needle & thread,

brenda

P.S. 6 new cross stitch & 6 new punch needle patterns due out 1st week of May! Watch right here for release date...

Going Green....

Mother nature is going green....

I took time for a stroll through my back yard early this morning...checking to see what is springing forth through it's winter blanket of leaves. I love this time of year, when our tree-lined street is turning that lacy green...so fresh & new! Nature does provide many beautiful shades of green and I wanted to capture them in photos this morning, so I had my camera in hand during my morning stroll.

Enjoy the many beautiful springtime shades of green....
(Click on pictures to view at a larger size)

Wild violets...a hydrangea peeking through & reaching towards the warm sun, Spirea bush...

3 Leafed Clover...Service Berry Buds, Hydrangea Buds




Purple wild violets, Cardinal Candy Viburnum, Lilies, Clover....



Jack Frost just poking through, New grass, Bleeding Hearts, Tulip



Daffodils & Surprise Lilies....

Creeping Jenny, Columbines, Brunnera Jack Frost, Bleeding Hearts....

What is your favorite shade of green?

Hope you all are enjoying beautiful spring-time weather as well...get outside & enjoy it!

Have a good weekend,

brenda

Cell phones & grandma's

Anyone that knows me, knows that in the past I haven't been too keen with cell phones. Call me old-fashioned, I guess... My cell phone always tended to be in the bottom of my purse without any charge.

THEN I became a grandma & I learned about receiving pictures, pictures of the grand baby via phone. Need I say more...my phone is always charged! The moment it makes that crazy little sound, I drop what I am doing IMMEDIATELY & go running to see what the little one is up to.

This is the picture that arrived today via phone, with the message "Anyone know of a good fishin' hole?" He is modeling his new hat & sandals for Grandma. He looks pretty proud of his new hat, don't you think?

I said my usual "oh, isn't he cute...isn't he precious?" I then immediately picked up the phone, the one that hangs on the wall that is, & called his mommy!

enjoying grandmotherhood,

brenda

She's Baaaccckkkk!!

Upon entering my front door yesterday, I looked down and saw this mess on my front steps....

I then looked up & this is what I saw.... she's BAACCCKKK!

Mother robin is back again this year. As you can see, this mother robin's house is currently quite messy, she has some house cleaning to do...yep, just like me! If you look real hard you can see that she even found some blue Easter basket grass to weave in and out of her nest! Truly amazing! The robins work on their nest in the early morning and then you don't see them much for the rest of the day. We had a nice spring shower over the weekend...made for perfect mud for nest building. The robins start with larger/coarser grasses and mud for the main structure of their nests. They use their big ruby-red breast to form the nice hollow of the nest...fun to watch this process of the nest building. Once the nest suits the parents, they will line it with finer, softer grasses. Mother robin will lay one egg a day, usually 3 - 5 eggs. The robins will then hatch, one a day...in the order they were laid!
Do you suppose it is the same robin as last year? I often wonder this...It is a great place to raise a family of birds as the the small porch protects the little ones from the elements...no rain under here!!

I did some searching through old photo files from last year and am going to share our 2008 robins nest with you...

If I went upstairs and opened the window & hung my body out the window I could get a pretty good view of the baby birds.

Four tiny robins just hatched....Feeding time....

The babies would pop their little heads up each time we went in or out of our door. They become sensitive to noise/motion and think it is mother landing on the nest with a big juicy earthworm....

Here are a few more pictures that I snapped last spring.....

The red bud tree & crab apple trees in full bloom...my favorite time of the year! These trees always put on quite a show in our yard, usually just in time for Mother's Day weekend.

A shot of the trees outside our bedroom window....

The orioles arrive here in the springtime just as the red bud & crab apple trees are blooming. They enjoy the sweet nectar in the blossoms. They also LOVE oranges & grape jam. I load up my oriole feeders and we welcome these springtime visitors to our yard. One of the most beautiful birds...the Baltimore Oriole.

Male & female Baltimore Oriole enjoying oranges & jam for a morning snack.

Ending with a few more pictures from last years garden....

I love this picture! I didn't notice the delicate spider web on the tomato plant until I downloaded the picture onto my computer (click photo for better viewing). Isn't that just cool! We enjoyed these sweet tomatoes in our garden salads...the plants were simply planted in a clay pot and put in sunny spots throughout my backyard.

I had some fun making photo collages....

Looking forward to robin eggs, blooming red buds & crab apples, and the return of the oriole,

brenda

AS BUSY AS A BEE!!!

"No bees, no honey; no work, no money."

As of lately I do feel like a BEE...going from one half-way completed design to the next, and then back to the other! A bee with it's head chopped off, perhaps!!

My stitchers & myself have been busy stitching, sewing, stuffing & adding final touches to the next group of new pattern releases. There are designs that need to be framed, photo shoots that need to happen, ad layouts to create, one deadline after another, AND it is too nice to be inside...I'd rather be outside enjoying the nice spring time weather, BUT 'tis my job!

No hints or sneak peeks of the new ones....titles only!

Sarah's Garden

Schoolgirl Sampler

A Gardener's Prayer

Sheltering Tree

Feather Your Nest

Spooky Hollow

Boo & Jack

Ghosts & Goblins

Frozen Frosty

...and a couple that don't have names as of yet!!

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda

This one gets a smiley face!

When time allows I enjoy trying new recipes and I must admit this one is going to get a smiley face in my book! I can feel my jeans getting tighter by the moment...so yummy & so simple to make!

CHOCOLATE & PEANUT BUTTER RIBBON DESSERT

What You Need:

12 Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies, divided

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

One 8 oz. package Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

One 12 oz. tub Cool Whip whipped topping, thawed & divided

2 squares Bakers Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

Directions:

Crush 8 of the cookies in a resealable plastic bag with a rolling pin. Mix cookie crumbs with melted butter. Press into the bottom of a foil-lined 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Mix cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in 3 cups of the shipped topping. Spoon 1/2 cup of the cream cheese mixture into small bowl. Stir in melted chocolate until well blended; set aside. Spoon half of the remaining cream cheese mixture over the crust. Top evenly with the chocolate mixture;cover with remaining cream cheese mixture.

Freeze 4 hours or overnight until firm. Lift up on the tin foil, removing dessert from pan. Peel away tin foil and cut into slices. Top slice with a dollop of remaining whipped topping & crushed cookie crumbs.

Enjoy & have a good week,

brenda gervais

Good Friday Sale!

Shop online with us on Good Friday, April 10Th for springtime savings at Country Stitches! Order between the hours of 7 AM - 10 PM (Central Standard Time) and receive 10% off of select items. Some exclusions do apply. Do not shop too early or too late as sale is just between mentioned hours. Sale applies only to online/Internet orders.

Wishing everyone a joyous Easter holiday,

Brenda

My two day sabatical from work....

I enjoyed a nice break from pattern design work & helped out with Beckham while Mommy was recovering from oral surgery. Beckham was so good for Grandma & I had a wonderful time. He no longer looks like a baby...he is all little boy! He has found his fingers and enjoys singing with his thumb and index finger in his mouth....so cute & makes for a sweet little bedtime song. I now have lots of new pictures to tweak & create with in my photo editing program....yippeee!!!!

It sounds like winter is returning over the weekend with a foot of snow forecast & blizzard conditions....a good weekend to curl up in a chair and do some needlework!

Have a good weekend,
brenda gervais