November 16, 2008

Sunday Samplers

It was an especially nice Sunday; I finished my homework early and took the afternoon off. We went to Target and bought new bath rugs for the bunnies, then on to Petsmart for cat litter, then to Booth Feeds for timothy hay. We drove through the bright chilly afternoon into Fredericksburg to check out the LNS, purchase a book at the used book store and look at Christmas decor (doesn't it seem EARLY? And yet, I'm somehow ready to decorate even though I'm generally a bah-humbug kind of person about the Christmas season). Then out to eat in a nice seafood restaurant with a real wood-burning fireplace. I ate the shrimp sampler, and now my fingers, despite several washings, smell shrimpy. (I want to do the "six things" meme, but haven't had a chance. Here would be one of the items, though: I hate eating food with my fingers, so I eat fried chicken with a fork and knife, which makes BF laugh. I also eat messy sandwiches with utensils. My shrimp came in their shells, so I had to grasp them to pull them out--worth it, even with the sticky fingers that resulted. The worst meal for that ever was a lovely and very fancy white-tablecloth Chinese restaurant in Vancouver where I ordered some sort of crab claws. You had to break the claw to get at the meat, but the claws were covered in some sort of sticky, slippery buttery sauce. Awful, and while the meat inside was great, it just wasn't worth it, in spite of the nice warm finger bowl.)
Here's some progress on Dot's Garden. Michelle, I'm doing it over two; I think the days of doing an over-one project of this magnitude are over. I'd love to see her new design--I don't think I've seen it anywhere. And when you see her, would you please tell her that her charts are literally the best and clearest charts I've ever worked with. Such a pleasure to see what you're doing!

Here's a sampler I bought on ebay. It's from The Essamplaire, and it's a reproduction of an antique. It's to be stitched on 35 or 40 count with AVAS silk or DMC. Stop me before I do this again. I saw the picture and loved it (sorry for the funny angle; it's the best I could do with evening and the flash) but several things make it more of a challenge (the Essamplaire is similar to Scarlet Letter, if you haven't seen their designs): first, the fact that it's an antique repro. means that the charting and stitches are somewhat more random than precise. There are a lot of stitches other than cross, some of which--herringbone and queen stitch--are a royal pain. Some of the architecture and the animals are in a style that might be considered "naive." And it's hand-charted and therefor a tad more difficult to read. It's the same problem I'm having with the Pets sampler that I started last summer--a beautiful design but harder work than a contemporary interpretation of an historic sampler might have been.

Here are the bunnies playing around the dresser. They like to get under there and tear at the carpet, so we try to block it off and it's great bunny fun to pull back the covers (or in Peaches' case, to zip around the side because she's so small).

I've been so busy that I neglected to thank each of you who gave me an award or tagged me for a meme. I haven't had a chance to follow the directions yet, but I will someday soon--the semester's over in three weeks, and there's the long Thanksgiving weekend also. Happy week, all!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey..that Sampler is coming along nicely. Wasn't it cold today?
Oh and driving home from the barn...I noticed two homes with Christmas trees up. I thought it's a little early, but they look nice regardless. Have a great week.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

The antique sampler is very fine, it would be sort of like going back in time to work on it.....Peaches and Elvis look like they are having a wicked lot of fun :~D. Tyler and Sydney like best what they really shouldn't do, like go into Boyfriend's study (it's a scary mess of papers in there, frankly), within 5 minutes of the door being left open they have raced in.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I had an experience similar to your crab claw one. My college boyfriend and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and ordered ginger crabs, not knowing that we would be getting whole crabs that had to be cracked open. The ginger was a thick coating all over the outside of the still-in-shell crabs. Luckily this was not our first date, because it was quite messy. Finger bowls? Please. We needed finger bathtubs!

Peaches and Elvis sure are having a good time. Cadbury loves to play in blankets on the floor, too. Where is Pink?

RG said...

Three cheers for Peaches and Elvis ... oh my, those West coast crabs .. it was probably Dungeness .. are best just boiled in slightly salted water and cracked from the unadulterated shell!!!

mainely stitching said...

As always, cute pictures of your bunnies. :D And I think your sampler is coming along beautifully!!

I also hate to eat with my fingers. Now, sandwiches don't count, but I will NOT eat ribs and food like that, and I also eat fried chicken with silverware.

Wendy said...

Another gorgeous repro.sampler! If you don't stop showing these gorgeous designs, I'm really going to have to block the pictures on your blog. Sounds like you have a wonderful day...smelly crab fingers and all...sigh!

YowlYY said...

I recommend to rub fingers that have been in contact with smelly food (fish, but also garlic is persistent)with a slice of freshly cut lemon...it takes away the smell no problemo.
Your stitching is beautiful, love it all!
Bunnies seem to know that what is fun for them is "no no" for the slaves... see Miss Eve going for the ever tempting corner at the stairs, trying to pull out the carpet...or digging at the wardrobe door, because she knows that behind the door there's a room that demands to be explored...

Tammy said...

I'm loving Dorothy's Garden, and the buns are precious!

Daffycat said...

Elvis looks so cute all stretched out on his tum like that!

Lucy Mills said...

oh aren't your bunnies lovely!! Thank you too for your kind comments - Charlie is very grateful for everyone being so kind :)

The Scarlett House said...

Hi Glenna, I wasn't familiar with Dorothy's Garden, but I finally came across it. It's a nice sampler. I love the roses. I also like the new one you found. Are the colors pale or is it just the photo? I'm with you on the specialty stitches...give me plain old crosses.

Jeanne said...

I enjoyed seeing your bunny pics and what gorgeous stitching on those flowers! Love that rose. I am starting to get my Christmas mood going but maybe it's because we just bought a little pre-lit tree at Costco and my hubby put it up already in the family room. No ornies yet on it but the glow is nice. :)

Michelle said...

I agree, the hand-charted samplers are a bit difficult to read. I do love how Becky's charted hers too. Her new one is called Peace, and has a stitch count of 578 x 941. It's big!