~ Feeling Blue ~

Good Morning Friends & Folk!

~ happy Wednesday to you all ~

the title to my post is misleading... 

I'm not personally 'feeling' blue ~ 

I am just adoring the blue samplers that I've been seeing pop up on Pinterest lately!

look at these beauties:

this one is a naive and simple Alphabet band sampler:

"Behold the Daughter of Innocence how beautiful is the mildness of her Countenence"

Indigo dyed threads of cotton & silk

make me swoon...

such a difference in execution from the previous sampler above,

but nonetheless just as beautiful ~

 

and look at this big girl below!

just how many motifs can you have in a sampler at one time?

ALL of them I guess! 

{{love the weird looking mermaid/fish-woman middle-left and long-necked woman upper left!}}

I believe this one is Belgian, dated 1830 ~

 if I am wrong on the provenance, please forgive but WOW!! 

a stunner and how many hours went in to this??

soft sweet blues, pale and pretty...

this sampler stitched by Eliza Cookson (below)

 is just plain sweet and shows the prowess of a well-schooled 13 year old girl in 1824:

 

the lettering on this one below is perfect in my eye & heart ~

oh I just love them all!

 

Hoping your day is filled with many small things that bring you great joy!!

 

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Red & Green ~

Oh that linen, needle and thread ~

it has my heart tangled up once again in it's web of tiny stitches and rhythm. 

The soothing sound of humble cotton thread being pulled through my blank field of nubby linen

 is something I look forward to each day.

I remember when I was first smitten with those small X's like it was yesterday. 

~ I was in an historic home in Guilford, CT and noticed there on the horsehair-plastered wall, 

a very decorative frame that held the most naive needlework I had ever seen.

It was a small sampler, of a house, some trees and a verse...stitched by a local girl in her young teens.

stained & threadbare, but lovingly housed and displayed for future generations. I was spellbound.

So I went to our local library {this was before computers} and dug into many hours of fascinating research on "School Girl Samplers" ~ something I had never heard of before.

From that day forward,

I would scout out samplers hanging in historic homes and places that I visited in New England... 

as well as Colonial Williamsburg on our trips down here to VA before moving here.

I knew right away that I wanted to replicate the look of these works of heART, and set about gathering supplies...luckily, there was a local needlework shop {which I never knew existed!} and I now made regular trips weekly to restock threads and linen and patterns.

My very favorite designs came from The Scarlett Letter and Homespun Elegance.

I was honing my 'skills' with the use of others' designs.

BUT I WANTED MORE.

I wanted to do what they did ~ 

create like those young girls who stitched those samplers so very long ago 

without the aid of graph paper, drawn motifs or nowadays, computer software programs.

SO I DID.

and I'm thankful that I stumbled upon the path of Needle and Thread ~

 it has led me to many chapters of creativity and most-wonderful friendships with kindred needlewomen who crave the same sense of completion and humble pride.

 Here are a few of my favorite Red & Green samplers that I 'collect' in my Pinterest boards ~

~ enjoy the past....

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Monday Monday ~

Hello Friends & Folk!

and a very happy Monday to you ~

the sun is shining

{at the moment, at least}

but I don't trust it to stay long…it's been pretty absent for weeks now.

Hoping to get some laundry done & hung out to dry.

How many of you hang your fresh sheets on the line to dry? 

I always have & always will :)

Friday, Peter & I headed out to the Antiques Expo in Fishersville, VA

it was sunny that day too, saw some wonderful early textiles and samplers ~ 

always my inspiration for my needlework...

I'll show you my plunder in an upcoming post.

This week will be filled with finishing models for the upcoming release of our Summertime designs.

there will be a pleasant mixture of wool appliqué, punch needle and cross stitch patterns for those of you who like to mix things up a bit…and by that I mean joining punch needle & the wool appliqué with the cross stitch in the same design.

linen, cotton, wool & thread  ~
a prim-perfect combination

I'm still cross-stitching over one, as it goes fast and looks so very old to me.

… and since seeing all of the beautiful antique samplers at the show Saturday, 

I'm inspired to design more early-looking needlework patterns 

that will be incorporated with my more 'primsical' side.

Heading out to hang the wash between raindrops now ~

and hoping your day is filled with sunshine & stitches

~ Blessings from the Farm ~ 

 Lori