Ann Dale Progress Report

Just a quick post to show progress on Ann Dale, the wonderful sampler charted by Theresa Venette.  The fabric is 40 count Vintage Pear and the over-1 verse really slowed me down, but I love every stitch. My goal is to finish the sampler this year.

I joined Romi's 2012 Pins & Lace Club and received the first skein of yarn this week, along with an intriguing shawl pattern.

It's a lovely shade of tropical Hawaiian blue and I'm excited about casting on.




Have a great week!

Thank you Marshall Tucker.

For some dear readers this will be close to a repeat of Tues night's post...which I managed to delete after posting while fixing a typo in the title. So Margaret...you can skip this one :)

I was thanking Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynryd, Blackfoot, 38 Special, Allman Brothers for their awesome Southern blues. Because I recently rediscovered just how much I love their music...and because it's helping me hit some new goals at the gym this year.  After fighting to put in even 20 minutes on the elliptical a couple of nights I week, I can now go over an hour and close to 7 miles thanks to these guys. Love those double lead guitars, the awesome bass, the whole Southern sound. Takes me back...

I promise to post a snap of progress on Ann Dale next post.  I've been putting in a couple of hours almost daily ever since the first of the year. It's a gorgeous sampler with my favorite colors.

We had another early spring day here in North Florida - 80 degrees during the day - perfect for riding with the top down! But the pollen is dusting everything, almost a month or two early!

Hope you are finding lots of time to enjoy your favorite needle arts.

Almost Forgot!

The Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread was a finish in late summer 2011.  I neglected to post it as a 2011 finish because it was languishing at my favorite framer's shop waiting for me to pick it up for about 2 months! My only day to go when The Frame Shop is open in St. Augustine is Saturday, and seems I was booked solid every Sat. for ages!  I purchased the frame from Brenda's shop since it is the one she used for her original and I was quite pleased with it.  The olive green and barn red colors complement the piece and the room I have in mind for placing it.

Along with many other members of the Azalea Sampler Guild I hopped on the Ann Dale train.  It's already proving to be a very compelling project with a fairly easy border (although the elements are not equal in count when comparing horizontal vs. vertical so that requires focus) and a goodly number of motifs to keep one's interest!  The colors happen to match much of my house - shades of green, scarlet and cream - and are simply dazzling in the NPI, Belle Soie and Gloriana silk fibers.  This is my progress after 2 days:

This photo doesn't show the colors but the long stem is a dark green, the squiggle-y borders are garnet, and the wandering vine border is a yellow-green.  The small red bands are the start to the strawberry motif border (there are 72 strawberries....I had to count them...OCD!).


It's back to the office tomorrow, to the land of budgets and projects and financial statements....so you know what we say! "I'd rather be stitching!"  Happy 2012!