Saturday Stitches

The Parting Hour : Gather Ye Tulips : Simple Bounty Cupboard Sampler

I Love You Truly, Truly Dear : (The Birds & the Bees) Olde Bouquet

(Sarah E. Schall) Sarah's Companion : My Funny Valentine

It Must Have Been the Mistletoe : (Tidings of Comfort & Joy) Noel 1705

French Harvest Basket : Great Grandma Johanne's Birth Sampler

Anna's Prayer : Now Christmas is Come

Cross Stitch Nation: Stars & Diamonds : With One Accord

George & Martha : Great Grandma Dagmar's Birth Sampler

Feniscowles Hall : Never Let You Go : A Weaver's Shuttle

1763 Band Sampler : Baby, It's Cold Outside

Studio/Office/Sewing/Work/Guest Room

That room that has at least two dozen names, one for every mood, it would seem, has once again been altered. We finally put the kiddos into a bunk bed, leaving us with a twin bed that needed a home. I was all for storing it in the shop at first, but my more practical other-half, the Farmboy, convinced me to move it to my already over-crowded work room.

Which in turn, forced me to sort, re-organize, and generally work some serious squeezing magic with all of my STUFF.

It works. It really does, and I'm glad the Farmboy is so convincing when he sets his mind to something. And that I'm pretty good at sorting and squeezing the most use out of my space. We make a good team.

How would you like to sleep here (quilt by my big Sister, granny squares by my Grandma, sampler wall by Me)?

Your last glimpse of my sampler was was here. I predict that it will be completely full by this time next year.

The other side of the room has changed slightly, now holding all of my small designs and that little printer that works overtime.

And just for the fun of it, I spliced some photos together to show you the current state of my pincushion collection (a few are living in other locations around the house, so this isn't complete by any means).

Do You Have a Sampler Wall?

As you can well imagine, I have samplers all over my house. Mostly my designs, but also my growing collection of antiques and a few that were stitched by others, or that I stitched from others' patterns.

I decided to turn that awkward wall in my studio into an overflow/catchall sampler wall...

Much better than my previous filing system in which the samplers lived on a shelf like a bunch of books.

What do you do with all of your finished samplers?

A Place to Call My Own

The room that used to look like this, and then later like this, now looks a little more like this:

Yes, my 4 year old still sleeps in her crib. Why not? Its cozy, still plenty big for her small body, and it easily contains the menagerie of stuffed friends that keep her company at night. But I digress.

The other upstairs room, which used to look like this:

Now looks like this:

Can you even stand how much better it is now? I can't. I keep going into my new office, my very own room, and fiddling with projects and tweaking the arrangements on my shelves, and generally being happy that I finally did it.

The bouquet of hydrangeas were at my wedding. I'm not usually one to decorate with dead flowers, but I just can't bring myself to throw these onto the compost pile. They were vibrant and fresh that day, and although their new-ness has faded, they have become more lovely with time. A good metaphor for our marriage.

I finally moved the kids into a room together (they love it, by the way), ignoring my un-founded fears that they would be sleep deprived and too crowded for comfort. I shared a smaller room with TWO siblings when I was that age, and it certainly didn't hurt me.

I do feel a little greedy, taking over an entire room for my office space, but it is my house, after all. Those little people are just borrowing space until they are grown up and ready to face the world. Might as well start teaching them to share and get along with each other first.

 

And having the space in which to be inspired and write and create and design and sew has been a very long time coming.

The other side of the room still needs some serious help. But for now I am content. No more setting the sewing machine up on my dining room table then putting everything away before dinner. Now it can stay plugged in and be at-the-ready continually.

And hopefully very soon, she will have a fancy printer as companion, and I won't have to make multiple trips to town each week to fill pattern orders.

This here is a little celebratory wallpaper for you to use if you like. Just click to enlarge, then right-click to save to your computer. For your personal use only, please.