Judah Hayle and odds and ends

I recently picked up my copy of Edwina Ehrmans book The Judah Hayle Samplers, published by Needleprint. This is a wonderful book, with lots of background material on the time period when the samplers were stitched, which helps the reader visualize the girls that stitched them, as well as the teachers (Judah Hayle and her daughter ). When the book was published, there was to be a pattern for a recreation sampler which (if I remember correctly) Jaqueline said there wasn`t room for. I have started stitching it, but am changing the colours completely. One reason is because this isn`t strictly a reproduction, but more a blending of motifs and bands from several of the Judah Hayle samplers, and I thought it would be interesting to see it with a more modern colour pallet. I also am planning to someday stitch at least one of the reproduction samplers from this school, as offered by The Scarlet Letter. It will be fun to see the differences in the two samplers.

I have put aside Grateful Heart for awhile. I decided to wait to order the threads when I am stateside, so in addition to the Judah Hayle sampler, I am playing with this:

It`s all The Spinster Stitchers fault. I discovered her blog a few weeks ago, and stayed up a few nights into the wee hours reading all her posts from the beginning, and laughing my head off. If you haven`t read her yet, get yourself a cup of tea and settle in for some fun. She is witty and funny, and so is her little dog Stewey. Add to that her stitching is beautiful, and her blog is addictive. She stitches a lot of Laura J. Perrin designs on 18ct mono canvas. I was oogling these and started wanting to stitch them. Problem is, I don`t have access to a LNS and I have never worked on canvas. My threads are too fine to stitch on anything much bigger than 28 ct linen...but I have lots of that. So, I cut a square of white linen, picked out my three colours for the pattern I couldn`t get out of my head, Star Spangled Quilt, and looking at a photo, started stitching it. Now, I have done this before when I couldn`t get a pattern for what ever reason, and it usually turns out well. The inspiration is the design, and then I do my own thing from there. I must be doing something right here, because it is working out to look exactly like the pattern should. I am going to change around the border though. Unless you like a challenge, I wouldn`t recommend stitching from a photo though. If I had graph paper, i`d chart up a version for myself, but I don`t, and i`m too lazy to do it on the comp using software. Less time charting = more time stitching! For the next LJP i`ll buy the chart (yes, i`m planning my next one already...i`m doomed)

I am also working on an ornie that I can`t show because it is to be a gift, and there are at least four other WIPs in my basket yelling for attention. I am a little frantic lately with moving to the USA, getting married, and my mom not being well, so I don`t know how much I will get done, but at least I will be stitching something.

Keep stitching ladies!