Of Gardens, Giveaways and Samplers

On the return from my recent visit to Windsor I stopped off to visit my cousin Sheryl. She is also an avid cross stitcher and had been telling me of a family sampler on her mum's side of the family dating back to the 1800s. This sampler now resides with Sheryl's older sister and she promised to email me some pics of the sampler. This week I received the pictures and what a beauty it is!

Very little is known about the sampler other than it is a direct relative who stitched it and the first of a long line of females named Jane. The sampler appears to be in fairly good shape although it looks like some of the stitches are deteriorating on the second basket and around some of the flowers. The reds are still pretty vibrant  and I just love the border!  The verse is interesting too. I'm not sure what's responsible for the silhouettes or outlines around the lettering. It's almost as if the dark floss was carried over between letters. At some point in time the sampler was framed beneath glass. I could be wrong but I don't think that was done originally.
Did you notice my cousin's kitty Cleo admiring the sampler too?
Once again I'm struck by what lovely stitching was done by these young girls. The sampler was stitched by a relative on my cousin's maternal side and I'm related on the paternal side so this young stitcher is in no way related to me.


The mailman also brought the last of my giveaway wins. I know, I know. It takes forever for anything to get to us here in Canada! Canada Post is not known for its speed!
You will recall that a couple of weeks ago I received BBD For My Friend from Melissa. 

This was followed on Tuesday by the arrival of my DVD win from Edgar.

I can hardly wait until I get some time to myself and can sit for a spell to watch these. Besides the DVDs, Edgar threw in a package of sweets which are one of my absolute favourites -  SweetTart chews. I have always loved the original SweetTarts but have not seen this version yet here in Canada. How did you ever know Edgar that I'm hooked on these candies? Thank you so much for the wonderful giveaway. What a great idea it was!


Finally, today's mail brought the arrival of 2 new designs from By The Bay Needleart which I won from Donna upon their release.

I adore both of these new designs and don't know which one I want to stitch first! The Funky Bird is the first in a new series of Donna's and I just know I'm going to want more of them!


A big thank you to all of you for these fabulous givings!! I know I'll pass many pleasant hours as a result of all of them.


My Magic Garden Sampler continues to progress although my stitching time has been somewhat limited. I forgot just how many appointments I had scheduled this week!

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not but I've already had a small visit from the frogs. I stitched the interior of the butterfly on the left in the wrong colour. Don't know what I was thinking! In any case, the frogging is complete and I can continue on my merry way now. I'm having a lot of fun with this stitch and haven't picked up anything else this week.


Speaking of gardens, here are some pics from mine. Due to my difficulties in gardening lately, I'm putting in more and more perennials. 
I love columbine and this one is a favourite.

My irises were a gift from a co-worker who was thinning out her own garden.

My latest addition is called Jethro Tull Tickseed, so named because of its fluted petals. I thought it only fitting since I'm a flute player myself.

I've added lots of hanging baskets to the yard to make up for my lack of annuals in the yard this year. Here is one of my favourites of the bunch. It's made up of double million bells in a gorgeous shade of red complimented with white bacopa. I love the blooms on this one!

On a final note, Happy Birthday wishes go out to my youngest son Chris who turns 24 today! We are heading to Toronto on Friday morning to move him back to Ottawa. It will be so great to have him back in the area again. Hope you had a great day Chris!