My Family Sampler

I was so excited on Wednesday when I returned home from work. I had stopped at the post office on the way home and discovered that my copy of LHN The Family Sampler had arrived. I couldn't wait until I drove home. I had to open it right there in the car and have my first peek. Diane Williams has designed another wonderful pattern!

I've spent the past few weeks trying to decide just how to go about stitching this one. All three of my sons are from a previous marriage and since I've remarried we no longer share the same surname. So you can see my dilemma - their name, my name, hypenated names(too long)? Then I thought that perhaps I would stitch my own family instead. No, I've already stitched a family tree of my side of the family. So after much thought and discussion I've decided to stitch the sampler using the word FAMILY where the surname should be. Where the W is located in Diane's piece I am going to add another box on the opposite side. Then I will place the inital of the boys' surname in one box and my surname in the other. I can then add the three boys, myself and my DH to the sampler and it can be interpretated whatever way they want. The male in the picture can represent their father or my DH.

Where the pattern calls for "est. in the year..... " instead I would like to stitch "wrought in the year". I'm just not sure I can fit that in. If not I'll figure something out! What do you think?

The past week has been a whirlwind of activity as we prepared to head out on vacation . Between work, errands and packing I haven't had very much time to myself for stitching. I managed to sneak in one hour each evening when I finally sat down to watch TV from 10 'til 11. Halloween Cove was my main stitch and here's where I left off as of last night. I love the colours in this piece and they look really great on the fabric I've chosen. It certainly has felt more like fall around here this past week. The extreme heat and humidity seems to have departed. What we have been seeing are cool nights, warm days, some rain and the start of the changing. The changing of what you say? The changing of the leaves! Yup, as I drove to work I could see it in the woods. The cool nights are a signal to those trees and as a result small splashes of colour are showing themselves here and there. My favourite season is upon us! I've always been a fall kind of girl. Those vibrant colours, the cool evenings and sunny days seem to infuse me with more energy. All those homey (is that a word?) feelings show up and suddenly I've got the urge to bake, clean and you guessed it, stitch! I might even get sidetracked from HC with the arrival on the stands of the JC Halloween issue. Some of this year's ornaments look like a must stitch to me!

I saw pictures this week that had been taken last October at the Cranberry Festival in Bala, ON which is located in Muskoka. Seeing the fall colours, the apples, pumpkins and of course cranberries got me aching for both fall and Muskoka. Speaking of which, that's exactly where we're headed shortly! As I've mentioned previously, we are heading to Windsor to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday. Following our week there, we have rented a cottage once more in the Bala/Pt Carling region. I have been looking forward to this for sooooo long! This is where I'm most relaxed, stitching out on the dock. I do wish though that there were some stitching shops in the area.

On a different note, I recieved a chart this week for my first Funky Flower. These adorable flowers are designed by Donna Bayliss of By The Bay Needleart. I think this particular flower, Annabelle, is one of the first of the designs. These look like such fun stitches to do especially over the upcoming long and dreary winter. They would certainly brighten things up! Donna has also planned a garden sampler for these flowers which you can find on her Funky Flowers Gardeners Blog. I'm planning on doing a layout of just three of the flowers. I figure I can use this layout many times over and just change the flowers within.

I'm hoping to blog while I'm away but if you don't hear from me for a couple weeks you'll know I'm having just too good of a time! I'll catch up with all of you once more in September. Wow, September! In the meantime, keep crossing those xs.