Bethia Fenshaw

Whilst Iris Naps Designs, the tiny sampler that will be mounted on the spool.  

I do not like working on this wimpy older WDW Beige linen.  But my inventory listing once again led me to a proper size linen piece in the 40 count bag very quickly.  I would have spent quite some time searching and measuring previously.  The floss is DMC 839 simply because it was handy.  I like it.  Not too strong of a brown, more muted, and was within reach of my lazy self.

Saw the doctor today, he removed stitches, the pin of course stays in place for another three weeks.  I've already had enough of this extremely uncomfortable surgical shoe.   

My cousin Mike (my mother's sister's boy who is the reason I am here) had a heart attack today.  Hard to believe, but his left ventricle had no blood, 100% blockage in the right coronary artery and a 90% blockage elsewhere.  The hospital he was tranferred to is a 25 minute drive, but it was so critical to act immediately that they used the helicopter to shorten that trip to 5 minutes.  He had no symptoms, no warning, until today when he collapsed.  He and his wife have a camp on Lake Erie and Mike comes home on Wednesdays to golf, but this time she came home with him which is unusual.  Thank God she did.  He feels a lot better now with two stents and restored blood flow.  If you remember, my mother was smitten with this adorable baby and decided to have one more, me.  It's why my sister is 13 years older.

Petey is still shoving his head to me for scratching.  And then he slaps me silly.

It is very painful to say, but it's October.  

WHAT???????  

WHEN?????????  

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Drum??

About 6" high and 4" wide, I think it will be a drum.  If not, it may be .... I got nothing.  The photo of the original won me over immediately, my rendition with the pinks, not so much.

I bought three $1 bags of Dove.  One bag left.  Didn't help, still crabby.

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Why did I start this?

Anyway, the tag sale will be Friday evening and I'll post a reminder.  I have six black and six sampler.  If samplers don't sell I can paint them black and slap a bird on them because I am not attaching until you tell me which label you want.  I have a twig tree that I could hang a bunch of these on with various autumn labels and may do that.  Or not. They will have suede cord hangers and are 3.5" tall and 2.5" wide.

Preview ....

 

I only have to outline the windows on EF to complete and will do that this evening while watching the debate.

Have a good evening.

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Breaking rules

I do it all the time.  Sally Fiske is the last big girl to be mounted and as I pinned her, something kept catching my horribly dry and scratchy eye.  It seemed to be a light streak on the sampler that moved when I adjusted the piece.  Since I was more interested in observing the linen thread on the edge I never actually looked at its entirety on the foam.  There it was.  That light I was seeing was areas of the 28 count linen that have less density and the white foam was obvious.  

I pulled out a roll of kraft paper and laid a piece beneath.  Much more uniform.  Of course, this is not acid free, but I don't want to make a trip to the framer and have her cut such a large piece of the correct mat board to line this.  As I said, I don't care about 100 years from now.  Nothing was acid free 200 years ago and many samplers have survived.   So it's wrong to do what I plan, but I also feel that precaution is for glorious needlework that will be kept by family.  I have a spray from Krylon that is a matte sealer for paper and art work, nothing like a varnish or coating, and I will use that on the liner.  Don't know if it matters, don't care.  I am in desperate need of my Dove darks and have been for two weeks as I try to lose weight.  It ain't working.  I am still packing my mouth like a squirrel preparing for winter.  Between losing summer, wearing this boot, and Dove free, I'm easily irritated and crabbier than hell.  My dollar store has little bags of Dove but that doesn't help when you buy eight of them.

Here's EF with a few changes to brown and the small section I have left.  I don't want to line the windows of the house with the charted very light and am afraid the brown will be too stark so I haven't decided on that yet.   I want to stick with the same colors used throughout, maybe the dark blue would be best.

Have a good day folks!

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Anna

Stag Lane Primitives has another spool listing for the Bethia sampler, this time without paint.  Plain wooden spools, same size, if you need one for 40 count Bethia they can be found here.

The final section of EF has had many errors and lots of frogging.  I do like the change to a darker basket and 1837, and I am making more changes from very light to brown.   The blue rather than pink house is looking good and I should finish this project in a day.

 The 70% off framing sale at Michaels ended and although chosen, I couldn't get there to place the order.  My foot is actually much better today and the pin sticking out of my toe will require this fricking boot for three more weeks.

My brother has several cemeteries near his neighborhood and are included in his daily walks.  He noticed for some time the poor condition of the grounds in most of them.  Right in the middle of the smallest, there was overgrowth and briars about 5 foot high and 6 foot wide.  After a while, his curiosity got the best of him and he walked to that spot, only to see a stone through the leaves.  The next walk he brought along clippers and gloves.  Bags of debris and brush were taken to the woods.  The next trip included a shovel for roots, followed by a rake, a bag of dirt, grass seed.  Finally, the walks included a watering can and the grass has filled in.  The person buried there is a fifteen year old girl that passed in 1937.  

A stone to the right is the same name, adorned with a small vase and flowers.  Parents?  Why was her grave ignored for so many years while all around her were groomed?  Not only did family not tend to this overgrowth, but the maintenance company failed to do its job.  Maybe there are no remaining family members nearby but someone is leaving flowers at what may be her parents'.

Her photo is on the stone, the frame was cracked and half was found in the brush.  He glued together what he could and painted the chips.  We know nothing about her or her family.  Since both stones have the same photo feature (theirs is missing) I think they must be her parents which would mean her mother gave birth at age 34.

I'm glad his curiosity got the better of him because it resulted in a very good outcome.

Rest in peace Anna.

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Alpha - boom

Aren't you tiring of my booming?  I don't have much to go and now that I see the full width, I don't believe the open book flat fold will work because of it.  Too short and wide but I will still try.  If not, one very large but short drum/pincushion.  Using the mylar will hold that shape, stuffing it without support would not work well at all in such a large piece.  Yep.  Big ass drum it may be!

I removed the very light basket and 1837 and plan to use the dark brown for both.  After removing the stitches, I can see the original green linen beneath.  Not sure you can see that in this photo but it's obvious in daylight.  Good to know that the quick dip (maybe even a longer bath) may not tint beneath the stitches.

Have a good weekend!!

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