FLY ON OVER on

September 1st...

to join us in celebration

of the release

of

new patterns.

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda

Doodling...

Imagine the total excitement that these pictures brought to his grandmother!

A grandmother

who tries her hardest

to sneak in a few moments

of doodling

each & every day...

So glad to see that the little one enjoys time to be creative...

What do you think?

A future Michelangelo or Picasso?

Simple artwork from the hand of a little one...
something only
a parent (or grandparent ;-)
will
treasure forever.


"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso




Have a great weekend,
Brenda

Fun Cards!

NEW note cards & greeting cards featuring dolls & needlework!

Cards are blank inside for writing your own sentiments. They are professionally printed on a heavy cardstock with a matte finish. Cards includes a white envelope and are sold individually.

Available in 2 sizes...

5" x 7" (perfect for framing)

&

4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (notecard size)

To view these go to the THIS N THAT category on our website.

Kind Regards,

Brenda

New Arrivals

"Comfort Zone"

by Maggie Bonanomi

Book is loaded with 18 wool inspired projects all with Maggie's signature look that we all have grown to love. Fabulous Book!

"Olga"

from Plum Street Samplers

Whimsical Halloween sampler worked on 36 count linen over 2 threads.

"Delivering Tricks"

from Homespun Elegance

Chart for a wicked witch that is delivery tricks to all the little treatsters! Design is worked on 30 count linen over 2 threads.

"Stitching Joy"

design by Homespun Elegance
The Santa ornament for 2010. Design is worked on 30 count linen over 2 threads.

Visit us online to view these new holiday patterns for your stitching pleasure!

With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda

Mary's Handework...

Mary's sampler has come to grace the walls of our keeping room. I will treasure it, admire it, take good care of it & am certain it will serve as inspiration for future work.

I will think of Mary often & wonder...

A school girl named Mary Wrigley of Clearfield, PA completed this piece in 1834, she was 14 years old at the time the piece was completed. Mary was one of 11 siblings born to Robert and Mary Kay Wrigley. Mary's Sampler came complete with a full family history of her parents that immigrated to America from Lancashire, England. The piece measures 18" square with large motifs, common to PA samplers, worked in bright reds and mossy green flosses.

A SAMPLER SPEAKS

I am a small square of linen and some

few yards of thread.

Long years ago, when America was young,

I lay across the lap of a little girl

whose hands patiently patterned me.

Seated on her stool, she faced a table

whereon a candle flickered,

and shadows chased

her busy fingers.

She sewed the alphabet and learned her letters...

formed a verse and learned devotion...

embroidered flowers and learned nature...

worked a border and learned art.

Through me, in part, she learned to be

a woman and a wife.

I was her hope and her despair,

her pride and her love.

She is gone now, and gone are her times

and her ways.

But in me, her sampler, and through her needle,

something of her and her day lives on

as surely as the painter

lives through his brush, the writer

through his pen. Author - unknown.

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda

Time to gather...

While driving home

through the countryside

last week

I saw this...

So I snapped a pic

and made

a mental note to myself (more on that later).

Can it be?

Already?

Are the birds

really starting

to congregate?

Nature's hint

that autumn

is just one more flip

of a calendar page away...

After a long summer

of raising two nest full of little ones

they probably have much to catch up on...

don't you suppose?

They are probably chirping about the weather,

nest building,

size of their clutch,

bugs,

worms,

the long flight south

&

even the 4 letter word... CATS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I continued on my merry way home

with that mental note flitting around in my head...

I pulled in the garage,

shut the door,

went in the house

and immediately got my sketch pad out.

I began to sketch a row of birds on a line...

I needed to capture

that imagine in cloth & thread.

BUT

things always don't transfer from mind to paper as we wish...

After some erasing, the high line wire turned into a pretty little wire fence...

A fun

little place for birds

to gather,

don't you think?

The sketch was then transferred onto weavers cloth and then it was onto color planning. TAA DAA...a new design was created on a country road, in my car, on the way home...and that is how I roll along folks!!

Watch for new punch needle & wool applique patterns coming soon!

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda

13% off at Country Stitches!

Offer has now expired, a BIG "thank you" to everyone who took in on these savings!

It's Friday the 13Th today! Are you superstitious? Do you avoid the following on this day...walking under ladders, black cats, stepping over cracks, 13Th floor of buildings?

Friday the 13Th is widely hailed as the most common superstition in the world, whose roots trace back to antiquity.

BUT...

all is not bad on this day!

Save 13% on select items for 13 hours when you shop online with us at www.countrystitchesonline.com.

Offer starts Friday, August 13Th at 8:00 A.M. CST ending at 9:00 P.M. CST. (no exceptions!) This applies to website placed orders only.

Items discounted will list a sale price, exclusions do apply.

Have a good weekend,

Brenda

Garden Fresh...

Here is a family-favorite salad of ours when fresh cucumbers, onions and grape tomatoes can be purchased locally at our farmers market. Thought I'd share it with you all... Delicious served with grilled meat & fresh sweet corn on the cob...summer meals are the best!

DILLED GARDEN SALAD

Small cucumbers (don't use the large cucumbers with big seeds), peeled & sliced real thin
Grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half,
Onion, chopped

Begin by slicing cucumbers & onions into a serving bowl. Cover cucumbers & onions with cold water and salt quite generously. Add several ice cubes. Let set for an hour or until ice melts. This step of soaking the veggies is a trick my mother has always done, it helps crisp up the cucumbers and is the key to great cucumbers, in my opinion! After soaking, drain water off of cucumbers & onions.

Add tomatoes to cucumber & onion mixture.

Apply the following vinaigrette:
1/4 cup light olive oil
2 T. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. dried dill weed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. pepper
Pour over salad; toss lightly

You can also add kalamata olives to this salad, cut in half.

Enjoy!

They're here...

The hand dyed linens used on our NEW Fraidy Felix & Candy Corn cross stitch patterns arrived today.

Yummy black & candy corn yellow 30 count linens...perfect for your Halloween stitching!

Now available for purchase online under the NEW ITEMS category.

With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda

Those silly things called bibs...

Hi everyone, my name is Beckham and I am filling in as a guest blogger today for Grandma Brenda. Today we will be going to Jackson, MN for the 7Th annual threshing bee at my Great Grandpa Lyle's Farm.
Before I begin I must tell you about my crazy momma and grandma...
It was the night before we were going to the bee and it was bath time as usual. I enjoyed a nice bubbly bath, dried off, put on some good smelling lotion and got my diaper on. Then things got a bit crazy...momma and grandma wanted me to try on these silly pants called bib overalls, in just my size. Threshing Bee attire I'm told. Well they were uncomfortable, didn't know about having buckles on my shoulders and well let's just say I was not having anything to do with those silly pants. No one at daycare wears these, I've never seen anyone at the playground or mall in these either. Momma and Grandma kept telling me how cute I was in them, that Great Grandpa would be wearing these, that all the farmers would have bibs on and yadda yadda.... I knew what they were doing. Just give me my cargo shorts & polo shirt with the collar popped!

For those of you who aren't familiar with these threshing bees, let me explain...
Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain (or other crop) from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain.

A Threshing Bee is a festival held in communities to commemorate this process.

Even the farm animals take in the threshing bee from their pens in the shady grove.

Here I'm explaining to momma that the sheep say baa...

Here I am surrounded by all the women in my life...

Great Grandma Millie, Great Aunt Linda, Second Cousin Abby, Great Aunt Sandra, my Momma, and let me think...that would be third cousin Riley.

All the above mentioned women kept touching my hair...why is that?

Well I guess momma and grandma weren't kidding...
I think I'm just going to pretend that I didn't see these guys. I couldn't help but stare at them in their silly pants...and I even know it's not polite to stare.

They look hot to me, glad I left mine at home.


More sheep & silly pants...

Momma and grandma don't even think about making me wear something like this next year.


Wait a minute, is this Santa?

Look at all these pots & pans. When I was younger I used to play with momma's pots & pans.

Hmmm....a silly way of getting water! And to think I always thought all water came from a spicket on the refrigerator door...

And more silly pants...

Even Banditt was at the threshing bee. Banditt is Great Grandma and Grandpa's neighbors dog who spends lots of time over at their house. They feed him cookies and wieners when he visits them...

I'm thinking that' s why he is lying by their front door every time I see him.

Here is a tractor on stilts. Just kidding. If I remember correctly this tractor was used in Nebraska (where the growing season is longer) to plant rye down in between the rows of growing corn.

Here is third cousin Cody driving Grandpa Lyle's John Deere tractor. Oh, did I mention that I call tractors "cocka's"? I'm having a hard time saying my T's properly. I've even got momma calling them "cocka's"!

Here is 2ND cousin Anthony driving Grandpa Lyles lawnmower that he built from odds & ends that he re purposed into this cute little thingamajig.

Here is Grandpa Dave driving Great Grandpa's Coop tractor. Look at him smile...do you suppose he is having fun? By the size of his dimples, I'm guessing he's having fun. I didn't know Grandpa knew how to drive a big tractor...

&

more silly

pants...

One of my favorite tractors. "Yellwowo" is my favorite color. This tractor is pulling a spreader...I'll let you be the one to guess what they spread with this!

Here I am explaining to dadda that this is a sheep and they say baaaaaaa......

I loved this guy...we have the same hair & he just had an attitude!

And as they say, "All good things must come to an end".

It was that time, time to say our good byes
to everyone.

"Bye sheep"

"Bye Bye Bunny"

"Bye bye Great Grandpa Lyle, it's been fun"

"Bye bye Great Grandma Millie, I love you"

"Bye bye Riley"

"Bye Bye Goat"

And thats all my good byes, no kidding! (sorry, couldn't help myself)

Love,

Beckham