From Bristols to Quakers and More

Time to catch up! I’ve been so busy with stitching events and family doings. I don’t always have time to update the blog. Will try to catch up this week. Let’s start by closing out the month of May!

My PIC and I traveled to the Attic at the end of May for the “From Bristols to Quakers and More” weekend. This was the Attic’s sixth Bristol event. I had attended the very first one (see my posts from June 2021), but had not returned for any of the others until now. Always so many needlework retreat options to choose from and we can’t do it all! (But we sure try…)

We arrived on Thursday to allow for ample shopping time at the Attic. It’s such a wonderful place. It wasn’t too terribly crowded either.

There was an abundance of linen to shop from and models a plenty to feed the stitcher’s soul! Of course, I’m always drawn to the red samplers!

I’m a huge fan of Samplers Not Forgotten…

And I had to take a picture of the patriotic designs!

There was so much more! If you ever have the chance to visit the Attic, you must go!

The Bristol to Quaker event started on Friday evening. We were very fortunate to hear from Becky Scott of Witney Antiques. Becky shared information on the new book they recently compiled on Bristol Samplers:

It’s 214 pages long and I can’t wait to dive into it. Copies are available at the Attic if you need to have one!

On Saturday, we first heard from Claudia Dutcher. She, of course, is an expert on Bristols. She shared that as we study about George Mueller, the orphanage, and the samplers, we continue to learn more and more. One of the most interesting comments was that approximately 15,000 samplers would have been stitched by the girls that went through the Bristol orphanage. Today, we have located only about 200 of those samplers. Hopefully more exist and they just haven’t been found yet!

Claudia shared several charts with us, but I am most looking forward to stitching this “Quaker Rag” an unfinished Bristol Sampler.

I failed to take pictures, but we also heard from Jennifer Richardson of Violets and Verses, and from Shelly M., owner of a Bristol Sampler. Jennifer recently found a Bristol that was stitched with wool (very, very unusual). Shelly shared her story on her journey to purchase a Bristol Sampler. Their stories were so interesting! Shelly’s sampler has been charted by Cozy Egg designs and is called 15 Friends.

After lunch, we were fortunate to hear about Masonic Samplers from Linda Hadden of the Sampler Guild in the U.K. My PIC and I are both members of this guild and cannot speak highly enough of their weekly zoom meeting. We have learned so much about the study of samplers!

On Saturday afternoon we also heard from Michelle at Tabbycat. She shared a brief and engaging history of England in about three minutes. (I wish she would have been my history teacher in high school!) She prepared us for the transition from Bristol to Quaker by talking about the Protestant Reformation in England.

Michelle shared this red sampler with us. You know I love the color red and I’m looking forward to stitching on Tabbycat linen!

Our weekend event ended on Sunday morning. Vickie Jennett presented on American Schoolgirl Quaker Samplers, and she and Maegan presented us with a lovely Quaker sampler to stitch. Of course, there was a perforated paper project too!

We weren’t able to take pictures of the antiques, both Bristol and Quaker, but there were many on display to admire. Such a collection of knowledgeable people, both the presenters and attendees.It feels like I only scratched the surface on everything we learned and experienced - it was such a great weekend! Educational and enjoyable. Hoping there will be another event like this again next year!

So blessed to have met Linda and Jacqueline from The Sampler Guild in the U.K.!

The iconic entrance to the Attic!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tour de Wall

This will be my last post for a few days. Heading to the Attic tomorrow for their weekend Bristol - Quaker event. Visiting the Attic always feeds my stitching soul!

For today’s post, I thought we could visit a collection of stitched pieces that hang on one of our walls. I love this group of samplers!

1. Though He Seemeth Sleeping from Lucy Beam. 

2. What Remains is Love, from Blackbird Designs. 

3. All Joys for Thine from Blackbird Designs

4. Feliz Navidad from Blackbird Designs

5. TLK 1834 from Needlework Press

6. Humble Sampler from MoJo Stitches

7. Eliza Guy (modified) from Chessie and Me

8. Tribute to Summer Sampler by Stacy Nash. Started by my friend Sue Tesmer and finished by me.

Hope you enjoyed this picture walk!

Birthday Celebration

(Note: Monday’s update is being posted on Tuesday. Had trouble uploading photos to Blogger!)

Yesterday, we celebrated our little Griffy’s third birthday! He was born three years ago on the exact day - May 24. It was a special day for him the entire day. It started out with a trip to the “muffin store” where he was treated to a blueberry muffin with a candle! After breakfast they took their dog Charli for a walk and went to the park where Griff got to go down the slide several times. He also saw some “sea turtles” in the pond (all turtles are sea turtles in Griff’s world.) No issues with taking a nap because he knew that a birthday party would follow. One of his special guests at the party was Great-Grandma!

Not to disappoint you, there is some stitching in this post. A couple months back I decided to finish an Annie Beez piece that we received the last time she was at Quilter’s Station. As I was stitching it, I kept thinking about Griff - he loves to sing the ABC song and he loves looking at some of my stitched samplers that have animals in them. I decided that this would make the perfect birth sampler for Griff with just some minor modifications. I was thrilled with how it turned out. The hardest part was keeping it a secret until his birthday. He loved the ABC’s and the animals! Yay for Grandma.

Today, I’m organizing, sorting, cleaning, dusting. It will feel good when I am done.  Pulling out some projects that have been waiting to be stitched for a very long time.

Mary Beale Days of Advent Progress

Finished another block on the Mary Beale project. For a full explanation, go back to my post on April 23. Block 1 (left) represents the story of Ruth and Boaz. Block two (in the middle) represents the story of David and Goliath. The third block (right) represents the story of Abigail and David. Keep in mind, we started in the middle and are working to the end and then will go back and work from the middle to the beginning.

Also, this morning, I put the finishing touches on another project. This was a kit we received from Lady Dot at one of the Quilter’s Station retreats a few years ago. I had most of the finishing done and should have completed it when I first received it! It’s a round needlebook made with Blackbird fabric using a variety of Lady Dot trims. Her goal was to teach us a variety of finishing techniques.

I will post a very special finish for you tomorrow, so please stop back!

Finishing Frenzy

The last week or two were quite busy with stitching opportunities and family commitments. Some of my stitching friends decided they wanted to commit some time to finishing; so we blocked two entire days! I’ve made some good progress but still have quite a large bag of things that need to be finished. This is a common problem for most of us I think. We love to spend time stitching, but are not so fond of the finishing part. We’re going to dedicate two days again in June. I’ll keep picking away at the things in that bag. Here are a few of the things I accomplished.

Hemstitching…I have a handful of samplers that I want to hemstitch. Not everything needs to be hung on the wall, but it’s nice to have it fully finished. I worked on hemstitching these two samplers. The one on the left is the 2025 Countdown collaboration between Modern Folk Embroidery, Roxy Floss Co., and Evertote. The sampler on the right was stitched quite a few years ago. It’s the Scottish sampler from Amy Mitten’s Around the World series.

This little pillow is from Samplers Not Forgotten. We got the pattern at a Quilter’s Station retreat a few years ago. Kim Nugent sold it as a kit at market this year. The design is called “Roses and Scrolls”.

Finally, I participated in Spring Mingle last weekend and took Cathy Habermann’s class to complete “Do Dragons Fly?” Cute octagonal shaped pincushion with a dragonfly pin. Love Cathy’s creative ideas and finishes.

Which reminds me - did I ever share this needlebook finish with you? It’s the Perforated Poinsettia Needlebook and a Poinsettia Puff. This was Cathy’s project at the Jingle Ball last December.

That’s all for today. I have a couple more projects that are close to being finished, so I’ll have more to share in a few days. Thank you for stopping by!

 

Jenny Bean For the Parlor

I posted progress photos of this piece last year, but never shared a picture of the finish. I’m really proud of this piece. I loved stitching it. There were eight parts, stitched on 36ct Wren with the called for Sampler Threads. I may have occasionally substituted a DMC thread or two if the color of the overdyed thread didn’t look quite right.

Now to decide how to finish it. I don’t think I am going to frame it. I’m thinking about finishing the edges and rolling it around a spool. It will be portable and a talking piece!

Sandra - regarding your comment on the previous post, you are correct! Juniper has a stitched backside! 

Thank you to everyone who still reads this old blog.

Juniper

The finishing spree continued this morning. At a previous year’s Quilter’s Station Retreat, we received a kit from Stacy Nash for this cute little animal cracker named “Juniper”. The kit included the pattern and supplies for the little round sewing box too - “Rose Cottage Sewing Box”. Our group that attended the retreat finished the sewing box last fall, but we hadn’t finished Juniper yet. Today was the day. It was also my first attempt at using sawdust as a filler. Some challenges with the sawdust, but I learned a lot.

Here they are:

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!