Awaiting her arrival...

Every time the phone rings,

 at work or at home,

 I am now thinking... is this the call? 

The call saying momma's in labor. 

 We are all excited to meet the little one. 

 Her due date is April 15th.

Her big brother came 10 days early...

So that phone call

 could really

 happen any day now!

Grandma has been busy working long days

 and

 weekends to get caught up

 so I can take a few days off

 to go and meet our new grand daughter

and

 just help out.

Please know that there will be slight shipping delays of orders 

whenever the little one decides

 to make her entrance into the world. 

 I'm working very hard to keep up,

 so I can sneak away for a few days.

Thanks for understanding, 

this is an exciting

time for us all

 and I wouldn't 

miss it for the world. 

I'll keep you all informed when the big event happens,

that way you will have a little heads up 

about shipping delays

 before you place an order.

Have a good day,

Brenda

Now I feel an urgency...

Several weeks ago I received an email from a gentleman...

He had stumbled upon my blog posting, 

the day that I shared photos

 of my Mary Wrigley sampler.  

You may recall,

 this is the first antique American sampler

 that I purchased.  

 I fell in love with her colors

 and 

the farm girl in me,

fell in love

with the

rooster motifs.  

 The email went on to read

 that this gentleman 

was a direct descendant of Robert and Mary Kay Wrigley,

 from Clearfield, PA.  

 They would be the parents

 to the Mary

that stitched the below sampler. 

 You can only imagine my total excitement

 in regards to this email.

  I had a person to connect 

this sampler to

 and that is pretty cool.

He went onto to say 

that they own a sampler made by Mary's mother,

 Mary Kay. 

 The sampler is dated 1806. 

 This gentleman's great great grandfather

 was a brother to the Mary

 that stitched my Mary. 

  Are you confused yet? 

 Yes, 

mother and daughter

 share the same name.

  The mother's sampler, 

was unfortunately damaged by water

 from a house fire 

many years ago,

 but is still quite readable. 

   He was curious

 how the daughter's sampler

 made it's way from Clearfield, PA

 into my hands,

 here in Iowa. 

  I purchased the sampler

 from a antique dealer

 out of Wisconsin,

 at a Minnesota antique fair....

If only we knew

 how she got from there to here...

what were her stops along the way? 

 Did she spend many years

 just hanging in an antique shop? 

 Maybe so. 

  It is really sad 

that something such

 as this 

gets out of the hands of family. 

 These are family heirlooms.  

  A part of me now feels guilty

 owning this...

She should be with family. 

  I feel the urgency

 to reproduce this into a chart,

 so a reproduced Mary Wrigley 1834 

can go home,

 to hang upon the same wall,

as her mother's sampler.

The sampler hangs on the wall next to my stitching settee. 

 This is where I spend a great share of my time,

 when at home.  

 This is where 

I

 sit & stitch.  

 In between stitches,

 when my eyes need a break,

 I look at Mary for inspiration.

Only now,

 it is

 with wonderment

 of what her mother's sampler

 looks like...

  Are they similar?

  Are the colors similar? 

 And of course,

I must wonder,

 does it have 

roosters

 on it?

Have a good day,
Brenda

MIA...

I've been somewhat missing in action as a blogger as of late...

Sorry.

 Life has been busy.

(we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of grand baby #2 in early April, ultrasound shows little girl parts!)

Work has been busy,

 and,

 well,

blogging

 has had to take a back seat.

It's a priority thing...

You may remember

 last fall I blogged about

a new pattern series

 that would be releasing in 2012.

Here is a little sneaky peeky... 

Teensy tiny little cross stitched purse necklaces...

only big enough

 to hold 

a thimble,

or 

whatever

 tiny little treasure 

you may have...

Or it doesn't really need to hold anything,

just wear it as a fun piece of jewelry

to your next stitching class or retreat!

Don't cross stitch?  Don't cry...

there are plans for wool applique and punch needle

in this series as well.

I'm thinking these will be sold as little kits

that will include the purse frame,

necklace chain,

linen and flosses.

More details on this series to follow...

Have a good week everyone,

Brenda

29 Candles!!

Happy Birthday
 wishes go out today
 to Matthew!
 Today Matthew reaches
 the # 29 milestone,
still clinging onto his twenties!

Happy Birthday Sonny Boy!

We Love You,

Mom and Dad

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

 We have a winner!

No one guessed all three correct, but 13 of you got 2 correct! Those thirteen participants got their names listed two times. I used Random Organizer, listing all of those who had correct guess. I then, with a click of a button, randomized the list.   Since May is our fifth month, it was predetermined, that the fifth name listed after being randomized would be the winner. 

The name that was listed as number 5 was Charlene (heart) SC.  Congratulations Charlene!  Please email me Charlene at order@countrystitchesonline.com with your mailing address.

The peacock blue floss...

a little woman in her large-brimmed gardening hat.

No one guessed this correctly.

 

The red floss...

an old-fashioned wheel barrow.

No one guessed this one correctly either.

 

The red and peacock blue floss is also used in the American flag. There were a lot of correct guesses for flag.

The mellow golden yellow floss...

a busy little bumble bee.

No one guessed this correctly.

Thanks everyone who participated in the give-away.  It was fun reading your guesses!

Watch for the release of May Word Play on April 1st.

Have a good evening,

Brenda

Midweek Musings...

The Spring Sampler of the Season is done!

 After a linen dilemma, and then a change of heart, it is done! Well almost done, just needs her frame. This pattern will release along with May's Word Play, and with some Spring-themed punch needle patterns around the 1st of April.

 

And a little sneaky peeky

at 

May's Word Play

floss selection...

Stitching of May's Word Play will begin this evening as I'm in front of the TV watching/listening to American Idol.   I'm enjoying some TV as of late.   The Voice on Monday evenings, followed by Smash, and then two evenings of Idol, and throw in a little Anderson Cooper too...the most prime time TV that I've watched in a very very long time. 

On a side note...

We received another bolt of potting soil brown ticking yesterday...yayyyyyy!  While I was hoping for more then the 1 bolt, I'll take what I can get!  Hoping to get more bolts directly from the manufacturer today or tomorrow.   I didn't get this pulled from the website before some orders came in, so we over-sold.    Once I have all the pre-sold orders filled, and I feel I have remaining inventory, I will mark the House of Blues & Browns Sampler supply kit and ticking available for purchase once again.  

 It's such guesswork...guessing what the demand for an item will be.  I make my best guess, and hope for the best.  My guess was a bit on the conservative side, when it came to what the response to the pattern "House of Blues & Browns Sampler" would be.  In other words, I will not have yards and yards of brown ticking, and wondering what I'm going to do with it all!  Nope, the dh will not be wearing any ticking shirts or undies!!

   The funny thing is, this design had been in my cross stitch library for 3 years.  Each design cycle I scroll through unpublished work and I would always opened this design, always.    I'd change the colors to brights, then to not-so-brights,  then I'd changed it to red-work, then to blue-work, then I  changed it to blues and browns...that was my a-ha moment, and the rest is history.  I do though, have that design saved 4 different ways...sometimes it just takes you a while before you really fall in love with a design. So I guess you could say, this pattern had been in the making for 3 years!

We lost more of our snow yesterday, heard robins in the yard this morning...

love this time of year!

And I almost forgot...let's have a little fun, shall we?

Let's have a little blog contest!  

Enlarge that picture of those flosses above.

Take a good look at those pretty spring-time colors...

Take a guess at what those colors of flosses will be used for in

 the May's Word Play.

See that mellow golden yellow?

See that brighter red in the center?

See that peacock blue?

Leave a comment,

 telling me what motif will be stitched using those three colors.

If you get any of them right, your name will go into a drawing for a free floss kit and pattern for May's Word Play when the pattern releases.   The contest will remain open through this Sunday. 

I'll announce the winner on Monday.  Your name will get put into the pot as many times as the amount of correct guesses you make.  One comment per person, pulease!

Enjoy the day,
Brenda

Have you ever wondered...

what it

looks like

before someone 

lets

the cat

outta the bag??

Silly kitty.

No,

I'm not traveling.

I've been home

 for quite some time,

actually.

The kitty found this spot

before

 I got things put away...

{sigh}

and he's just so cute

all curled up 

in my new

Amy Butler travel bag

that I haven't had the heart

to put it away.

This is one of those 

cats that 

owns a human...

Have a good evening,
Brenda

Just a little "b-hind"

My goal 

was to have my new Spring/Easter-time punch needle pattern designs

 ready to go

 on March 1st,

that's what my little calendar says anyway...

butt ,

but,

I'm running

 a little behind...

{sigh} 

 

Have a good day,

Brenda

P.S.

New patterns are starting to arrive,

watch for new Stacy Nash,

 Blackbird Designs, 

Scarlett Letter,

 Plum Street Samplers patterns

and others.

  New scissors from Kelmscott 

and new sheep and owl charms...

they are darling!

Thank you Frances...

I have a tiny little start on the antique reproduction piece, Frances Pool - 1832. 

I'm really liking the floss selection thus far on this sampler.  

While stitching those purple and blue berries I had a thought. 

 Don't you love it

 how your mind just goes somewhere else

when you stitch? 

Is this just me?

 While stitching those purple berries, 

I decided that they must be mulberries. 

 A bird will get stitched upon that twig of mulberries...

Those little X's of mulberry purple and blue

 reminded me of our young little family,

several years ago, 

dating back to when the dh was a student at Iowa State University. 

  Our young little family 

lived in married student housing

 that sat on the outskirts of campus, 

near a pasture 

where the horses were kept,

 just a hop and a skip from the horse barns 

on campus. 

 Yes, there are horse barns on campus..

ISU is well known for it's

 agriculture

 and vet med studies.  

On summer evenings, 

Erin would hop onto her white Huffy bicycle, 

with the purple banana seat and white wicker basket,

and 

little brother Matthew would be on his

 Big Wheel...

legs going just as fast as can be,

 to keep up, 

I must add. 

Click, click, click...

remember the sounds those Big Wheels made?

 Mom and Dad would be on foot

 and

 we'd go for a 

walk/ride to the feed the horses.

It was decided upon 

by the kids

 that horses eat carrots,

so that is what they fed them!

 After the horses were stuffed of carrots,

 (dear lord, I'm hoping those horses weren't any big part of any research study...)

 we would head east to a bike path

 that ran through a fairly heavily wooded area.

Trees hung over both sides of the path,

 it always felt 20 degrees cooler upon entering the path.

The area was brimming with birds,

 lots and lots of cardinals

 and 

mulberry trees.

  If we were lucky enough to beat the birds to the mulberries,

 we'd each pick a handful

 and

 put them in Erin's little white bicycle basket

 and

 head home to enjoy a treat of 

sugared mulberries and ice cream...

yummy!  

That was 25 plus years ago,

I had forgotten about those

 mulberry

 and

 ice cream days,

until

 I put those X's onto my linen.

 The thought of those days

 brought a smile to my face...  

Thank you 

Frances Pool.

Digging out from yesterdays blizzard,

Brenda