March 2016 – Plum Street Samplers

March 29, 2016

Pennsylvania Fraktur

Hello again!

I just wanted to share with you the newest Colonial Gathering Club piece that will soon be shipping from Dyeing to Stitch!

I love fraktur art, and it was the inspiration for this piece. You'll find the Pennsylvania state motto along the bottom of the piece, as Pennsylvania Germans (also called Pennsylvania Dutch) were the ones to introduce this beautiful art form to America. And of course, PA was one of the original thirteen colonies!

If you're interested, you'll find all the shop info if you click on their website link above. Thank you to everyone who has participated in Pat and Ann's shop clubs! They are so much fun!

March 28, 2016

Reflections

Happy Monday Morning to you!

I recently visited my local cross stitch shop, Reflections Framing and Stitching, which was re-opened a short time ago after moving locations. What a lovely shop it is! Julie and her crew have done an outstanding job of creating a bright and airy-yet-cozy stitching place for anyone in need of a handwork respite. I took my camera along, and here are some things I loved from around the shop…

Julie not only frames her customers' stitched pieces, but is quite creative and talented for those who need different types of framing done..

Here's a closer look at Julie's beautiful arrangement of Little House Needleworks' Little Sheep Virtues…

A different view of what's in the case in the first photo…

As I looked around the shop, my eyes beheld the most beautiful sight.. as a matter of fact, everything else melted away when I saw it…

Ahhh… the magical marriage of stitching and coffee… do you know how much stitching I've gotten done on that combination?

Not a whole lot, because I have difficulty sitting still, but that's beside the point.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Reflections. If you're ever in the Omaha area, stop by! The door is almost always open, and there are always new stitching friends to be made. And if you aren't in the area, check out their gorgeous website!

Thank you so much for visiting, and I hope you all have a fantastic day! It's sunny and bright outside, albeit chilly, but Martha and I will head to the lake anyway. The success of my magical combination is in peril if Miss Mary-pants doesn't get her daily sniffy field trip.

March 26, 2016

Rainy Saturday

I'm so happy to see the rain, instead of just the gloomy, dry grey that we usually get around this time of year. All of the trees are starting to get their little baby leaves on them, the grass is greening in spots here and there, and this "little" one (who is just up and eating her breakfast) is just as ready as I am for spring to be well underway…

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend. I've made cinnamon rolls and am ready to do a little cleaning and stitching. Tomorrow is Easter!

March 20, 2016

Beautiful Sunday

What a lovely day it's been so far. After church, we headed to a favorite little restaurant for chicken crepes benedict, and then home to walk Miss Martha. The sun doesn't want to make up its mind about whether or not to shine, but regardless, I love good-mood-days like today.

Here is Martha, always by her favorite window…

And here is sweet little Kamaji (or Maji, as we call him), who is usually very hard to get a picture of! Maji is Sabrina's little baby, and I don't think I've ever met a cat that loves dogs as much as this little boy. He and Martha are the best of friends.

One of these days, I may actually get a picture of them together!

Back to my Sunday.. I hope you're enjoying yours as well. I'm off to stitch!

March 19, 2016

Nasvhille Market, Part 3

And here are the rest of the market pics! If you see something you would love to stitch for yourself, please contact your shop owner, and she/he will be very happy to help you! 🙂

The next reproduction was fascinating to me.. the colors were so vibrant, compared to the original, which is pictured just below it. It's called "Sisters," reproduced by Cherished Stitches, and the initials are so funny to me!

And last, but not least, one of Sophie's favorites, by La D Da… I don't know if it's brand new, but she fell in love with it!

Thank you again for stopping by my blog to take a look. There are so few blog visitors these days, it seems, because everything has moved to the insta-age – which is another reason I'm not on here as often as I used to be! But when I do take the time to post the photos I take, I always leave feeling satisfied that I was able to enjoy again the moment in which I took the picture in the first place.

It's not a fast process, but it is much cozier. So thank you for slowing down to visit, even as the rest of the world flies by.

I hope to "see" you soon!

March 16, 2016

Nashville Market 2016, Part 2

Welcome back!

Thank you so much to those of you who wished Sabrina a speedy recovery.. she is doing much better today! 🙂

And now on to the second batch of pictures from market.. again, if you see something you'd like to order, contact your shop owner, and it will soon be on its way to you!

Pat Ryan and I decided to exchange samplers at market this year, and it was so much fun getting to bring this beauty home! (I stitched Shakespeare's Peddler's Hannah Carter for Pat, but if you can believe it, I didn't get a photo of it!)

The photo below shows the collaboration Jeannette Douglas and I did for the Tomorrow's Heirlooms retreat last July…

I hope you enjoyed Part 2 of the virtual market tour! I'll be back soon with the next set! 🙂

March 15, 2016

Nashville Market 2016, Part 1

Hello from Omaha! I'm back from Nashville, but not fully recovered, I don't believe. I'll check again in a little while, after I've poured my fourteenth cup of coffee for the day.

Market was so much fun, although a little more eventful than I expected! I brought Sophie and Sabrina with me this year, and both girls were very excited: Sophie, because she loves the market atmosphere and getting to meet lots of shop owners, and Sabrina, because she's never been to a market and wanted to see what it was all about. However, she ended up missing the whole thing, thanks to her wisdom teeth becoming impacted and us having to take her to the emergency room at about midnight, the night before the show started. I felt terrible for her, because my girl is not a complainer or a crybaby, so to see her in so much pain was hard for me. She ended up sleeping through most of market, but did manage to get out and about here and there.

Since I was down by one assistant, Carol and Denise came to my rescue, and Sophie and I cannot thank them enough for all their help. (As I type this, Sabrina is upstairs sleeping – again – but this time it's because she just got home from having her wisdom teeth pulled! I've been laughing at her all morning because of how goofy the medicine has made her, although I spared taking any video of her.)

I left the room on Sunday to visit a few suites and take some pictures, so here are the first batch.. I don't always remember who the designer is (shame on me!) because of the hundreds of photos I take, and it can get a little confusing. Only a handful end up edited and on my blog, because we would both be here all day if I uploaded every single one! But if you see something you love, and don't know who the designer is, ask your shop owner to take a look, and she/he should be able to help you. 🙂

Here we go! Some you will recognize, and some you may not! 🙂

Here is Mrs. Twist from Heartstring Samplery, on the same mission as I am. Be sure to visit her blog to see her market post – it's wonderful (and you get the names of the designers too)!

I think we'll stop right there for today! Thank you so much for stopping by, and come back soon for more market photos! What a privilege it was for me to see all of these in person.. the cover photos on the charts never quite do them justice.

See you soon!