A primitive sampler for Sunday

I was able to pick up another wonderful framing job from Bev & Joyce at Joanns the other day and I LOVE how it came out. This primitive sampler is called "Bless this Day". I started this one eons ago and found it still waiting for me in its rather wrinkled ziploc bag several weeks ago. It was close to being done, and again I have no idea why I lost interest and put it away. A couple of hours of stitching had it completed.

It is an sampler from years ago, in fact, I can't find a copyright mark or date any where on it! It says is it "a country crossstitch design by cheri" and I think that is Cheri Saffiote. I have several quilting books she's authored and this has the same primitive style.

I remember that the reason I chose this chart was for this adorable angel. I swear it is a dead ringer for an angel I drew in the 2nd grade.

Forgive the trip down memory lane, but this is one of those vivid childhood memories that has never left me. It was one of the last days of school for the years, Sister Dorothy, one of the sweetest nuns who ever walked the earth, was handing out awards. I received several for spelling, reading, and arithmetic and was feeling quite pleased with myself. Then she announced I has won the award for "Art Student" of the year. Wow!!! I went up and picked up my folder and realized that this was a mistake. The artwork looking back at me was an angel with a lop sided halo and a black eye. I had drawn this angel and decided one eye was too small so I erased it and made a total mess of it. In those days you did not get another piece of art paper, you had to make do. She was a sweet angel but certainly not "Art Student" of the year quality. As I raised my hand to reluctantly tell Sister Dorothy of this error, she realized that she had misspoke and the award rightly belonged to Cindy Klassner. That was over 50 years ago and I still remember her name. I remember at the time I was disappointed that I hadn't won the award, but I knew I didn't deserve it. I wonder where Cindy is now.

Okay, back to today, this sampler is stitched on a rather loosely woven linen in a light olive green. I used Anchor flosses. I ended up using 3 strands so the stitches are very plump.

Those little bees had me stopping and starting quite a bit. And I changed this piece to include the entire alphabet so I could again highlight my boys initials.

Here's a close up of the frame - I love the little worm holes and that darker inner border is part of the frame, not an extra addition. I think the primitive quality of the frame was a great choice for this piece.

A follow-up on the shopping yesterday - OMG - I think I walked 10 miles! First we went to a local furniture store - it was huge - we looked at EVERYTHING. My son did purchase a sofa, chair, ottoman, end tables, tv stand and a rug for his dining room. A very productive stop, only downside the furniture will take 40 days and of course he'd like it right now. Then a stop at Target, got a nice bench for the front room and a flat screen tv. And then we went to IKEA -- bad bad bad idea!!! I have never seen so many people. We didn't get there until around 4pm. The place was packed and if you've ever been to IKEA you know you come in one door and almost have to walk the entire square footage of two humongous floors to exit. He did decide on a bed frame, a chest of drawers, a rug for his living room, a giant picture of Cincinnati and a console piece that we are going to paint to put by the front door. However we did not purchase any of these items. The "loading area" probably has 25 or more spaces for cars to park and pick up their merchandise. Every single space was occupied and there was a line of cars stretching through the parking lot waiting to take their turn to get into the loading area. It kinda reminded me of lines at Disney World - they went on forever. Luckily we only live 10 minutes from IKEA so we will return one night this week to collect his furniture. It will still be there and hopefully there will be lots less people. On the plus side my son enjoyed people watching - particularly the young lady wearing a white gauzy dress with no undergarments - and he wasn't the only one who noticed. I hope she was there to buy a full length mirror.

Happy stitching-
carol fun