Scarlet Fever

One last paper to write this weekend, so I took Friday off to get some things done before I killed the rest of the weekend with schoolwork. One of the things I did was gather up a few of my many Scarlet Letter charts and take them to In Stitches to kit them up. The nice thing about going to the LNS on a weekday morning is how uncrowded and peaceful it is. I spent a happy couple of hours chatting with the ladies there and pulling the threads I was missing for Elizabeth Welford (I don't remember if I cannibalized them or just never finished purchasing them), by Handwork Samplers, and for three Scarlet Letter samplers. Here's Elizabeth. This is the designer's photo. Doesn't it appear to be stitched on silvery/blueish/gray fabric? The design actually calls for lambswool, which I don't like using. It's worked on 40 count, with NPI.

Here's the floss toss in not-ideal lamp light. On the left is Picture This Plus silvery gray called Fog, and on the right is Lakeside Buttercream. The Fog looks truer to the design photo but the Buttercream shows the ecru NPI better, I think, and there's quite a lot of stitching in that color. Since then I added two more colors of fabric, a darker blue PTP, and a pale blue/gray Lakeside. Still undecided.

Scarlet Letter: I have been collecting them forever--everything from Ideal Landscape to the various Elizabeths, Sarahs, Margarets, Rebeccas, Anns, Mary Anns and Robertas. This is Diligence, a chart I've had for several years. I had to start it, because when I kitted it up (AVAS and Maritime White Lakeside), I realized how unusual the colors were--bright enough, aren't they?

Diligence. I love the verse (over one), which says "Diligence: If you would adorn human nature/embellish and improve your understanding/How truly blest are they who leasure find/To dress the little garden of the mind/That grateful tillage will reward our pains/Sweet is the Labor certain are the gains/The rising harvest never mocks our toil/We're sure of fruit if we manure the soil."

Ann, which I fell in love with after seeing Nicole's. I noticed that In Stitches had Ann Smith plus several others I want to collect. Between Scarlet Letter and Essamplaire, you really could spend a lifetime stitching and never get through them all. I have spent many happy hours looking at their charts online and in shops and planning what I will hang where when they're finally done. Never mind the odds of that.

Here's a closeup of Adam and Eve (and like a lot of you, I'd like to have an Adam and Eve wall). Doesn't it look as if Adam is rolling his eyes and saying "oh, crap?" (A&E photo borrowd from Scarlet Letter's website.)


Mary Ann. I like the scene with its outsize chickens and sheep, the nicely done house, and the hovering angel who sports a goofy grin (you can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the angel's expression).

Elvis is feeling sorry for himself here. He was being soothed after having his nails clipped. Sorry, Elvis! There will be a nice salad for you later, after I've finished this stupid paper.

I'm off to dress the little garden of the mind and manure the soil! That doesn't really sound very good, does it? Happy week ahead, and may you spend as much time happily anticipating stitching as actually doing it.