Summer Vacation

      The weeks have flown by so quickly. We've had lovely warm weather and I've been keeping myself busy attending to all those outdoor chores. I've had time to sit in my stitching nook on the rainy days. I put the final stitches into Elizabeth Smith. Here she is in all her glory.

 Elizabeth Smith 1811

The Scarlet Letter

40 ct. Lakeside Vintage Light Examplar

DMC

Elizabeth is now at the framers and I'll be sure to share a photo of her in her frame in the next blog post.

      I wasn't sure which sampler or project to work on next... but Rebecca was calling to me the loudest, so my decision was made. Here's where I left off with Rebecca in January.

 Rebecca Cullin 1801

The Scarlet Letter

40 ct. Lakeside Examplar

AVAS

And here she is now:

 The satin stitched outline of the cartouche gave me fits. The third time was the charm and I finally got the top of the cartouche stitched properly.

       Last weekend my Guild had their Spring Retreat at Sinsinowa Mounds in Wisconsin. It's always a  treat for me to attend the Guild's retreats because it means I also get to go to The Country Sampler in Spring Green, WI before heading to the retreat center.  A few of the ladies in the Guild also made a stop at Country Sampler too. It was fun seeing what appealed to us and what made it into our shopping bags. It's always a pleasure spending an entire weekend stitching, chatting and catching up on what's been happening.
      I decided that Jane Pattison was the perfect project to work on at the retreat. 

 Jane Pattison 1806

Shakespeare's Peddler

32 ct. Lakeside Vintage Navy Bean

Simply Wool

      
      And last... but not least. Helen Vertue has returned home from the framer.

         Now to the meaning of my post title. Summer is a busy time of the year at Corgi Cottage. There are so many more options and obligations that are pulling at my time. I've decided to take a vacation from blogging for the Summer. Emma and Owen are eager to spend more time taking long walks in the prairie. My garden is calling to me loudly... it needs weeding, plants need to be divided and some beds need to be rearranged. I'd also enjoy spending more time on the sunporch with a good book and a big tall glass of iced tea.
      I'll be back in September with lots of stitching photos of what I worked on over the Summer and photos of what has come home from the framer.
      Emma, Owen and I want to wish you all a fun filled Summer.... and we'll see you in September.

Helen V is a Wrap

     Helen Vertue was a delight to stitch. The border is what drew me to the sampler. I converted the silks, as charted, to variety of hand-dyed silks.

 Helen Vertue 1812

The Scarlet Letter

36 ct. Lakeside Vintage Pearled Barley

Hand-Dyed Silks

     I did make some minor changes. The diamond motif  was supposed to be done in satin stitch with an eyelet stitch border. I chose to stitch the motif in rice stitch. After stitching all of the windows in satin stitch I was ready to move on to a different stitch.

     The flower blossoms in the upper and lower verse borders were stitched in queen stitch. It's been a long time since I've done any queen stitches and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching those blossoms. 

      Some readers requested my conversion for Helen. I think I've sent the conversion to everyone who requested it... but if I've missed anyone, please just leave a request in the Comments and make sure to include your e-mail address.

      Spring has finally arrived in northeast Iowa. My crocus have bloomed and a few daffodils are starting to appear. The arrival of Spring also means that Emma and Owen can resume their romps in the community prairie. Nothing puts a smile on those sweet Corgi faces than a good ol' romp...

 Until next time.... happy stitching.

One Finish and Two New Starts

     I finished the sweet Elizabeth Savilles sampler a week ago. She was a joy to stitch. I wanted to wait for a nice sunny day to take some snaps of Elizabeth, but our weather has been so dreary. Excuse the poor photography.

 Elizabeth Savilles 1841

 Finger Work

Lakeside 36 ct. Patina

Olde Willow Stitchery Threads

       In my last post I mentioned that I had picked out a new project to start as a reward for finishing three WIP samplers. Ann has been in my stash awhile. I fell in love with the bird.

 Ann A. Tarbox Sampler

Hillside Samplings

40 ct. R&R Abecedarian 

NPI and AVAS

      As you can see, I didn't get very far on Ann before I became distracted. I will lay the blame for this distraction on my stitching friend, Katrina. She reminded me of a beautiful Scottish sampler by The Scarlet Letter, Helen Vertue. As hard as I tried to ignore Helen and concentrate on Ann... it was futile. I succumbed and ordered the chart, which arrived in record time, from the Homespun Sampler.

 Helen Vertue 1812

The Scarlet Letter

36 ct. Lakeside Vintage Pearled Barley

Hand-Dyed Silks

I decided to convert the charted for AVAS/DMC to hand-dyed silks. I'm using a combination of Belle Soie, Dinky Dyes, Gloriana and Thread Gatherer silks for Helen. I couldn't be happier with the results.
     Here's a snap of Helen taken from The Scarlet Letter website.

 

      I was thrilled when I found out I won a giveaway from Alma of Blackbird Designs. I won a layer cake of their latest fabric line, Antique Fair. Thank you for your generosity Alma.