Monthly SAL With Willow Tree Sampler Guild

I’ve joined in on a monthly SAL with the Willow Tree Sampler Guild in Texas. Last month’s design represented 18th and 19th Americana and included the Lora Standish stitch. It’s the block with the house on the right.

This month’s block represents Scandinavian 17th century. Love the red and white.

These designs are from Bey Morgan.

A Weekend with Chessie and Me

The Needlework Guild of Minnesota held its annual meeting the first weekend in April. Our special guest was Linda Lautenschlager from Chessie and Me. We had three workshops with Linda, all based on two antique samplers that were owned by one of our members. When she passed away in 2021, I was able to purchase the samplers. Shared some pictures with Linda and the rest is history!

Here’s a picture of the antiques in the middle and the reproductions on the outside.

On the left is Eliza Guy, stitched in 1845 when she was 10 years old. On the right is Mary Ann Simmons stitched in 1848.

This small needleroll was designed by Linda; she was inspired by the motifs on Mary Ann’s sampler.

Linda brought a lovely trunk show (sadly, forgot to take pictures) and many of our members brought their own Chessie and Me finishes to share!

It was such a special weekend!

Quilter’s Station Retreat

Last weekend, my PIC, other friends, and I traveled to Lee’s Summit, MO to attend the Quilter’s Station Cross Stitch Extravaganza Retreat. It’s an easy drive for us, only about six hours by car. We made two stops enroute; the red barn as we crossed into Iowa (bathroom and cute gift shop), and Hickory Park in Ames, IA for lunch.

We like to go a day early so we have time for shopping, not only at Quilter’s Station, but also at CC and Company, another local cross stitch shop, and antique shopping and lunch in Greenwood. The antiques mall in Greenwood has a tea room. They have the best food and amazing desserts!

The retreat is two days with four designers. We had an awesome lineup this time - Cathy Habermann, Hands on Design; Beth Seal, Summer House Stitche Works; Linda Stolz, Erica Michaels; and Lois from Lady Dot!

Look at the trunk shows! Lots of yummy eye candy!

Erica Michaels:

Hands on Design:

Summer House Stitche Works:

Our class projects were wonderful! Linda kicked off the event. Did you know that she is celebrating her 25th year of designing? She talked a lot about her strawberries. Our project included motifs from an antique bookmark on perforated paper. We received the chart and supplies to make a pillow, a berry, and a small tag on perforated paper.

Lois was up next. She is such a hoot and full of energy. No cross stitching involved. The pillows were pre-made using some 100 hundred year old linen from a barn in Germany, and then embellished with some lace flowers. Lois did most of the hard work for us! Definitely an “out of-the box” project but we had fun assembling them.

On Day Two, Cathy Habermann was up first, and it would only be appropriate that we do some “Hands On” finishing! We made some bolster pincushions using fabric. The seam had been stitched in advance, so all we had to do is close one end, stuff, close the other end, and add buttons. The design can be finished in a similar way, or it can be framed.

I guess I didn’t take a picture of the finished project! Wait until the end of this post…

Last but not least, Beth Seal from Summer House. A beautiful small pillow and a wool applique pin keep to “expand our horizons.” 

Here are all the teacher projects together and the teachers:

Fun weekend with friends, fun projects!

Autumn Abundance at the Attic

The fall is fleeting fast. Of course, it’s been an extremely busy time and I have been traveling a lot.

Last weekend, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Autumn Abundance workshop at the Attic. Jean had a great line-up of designers: Linda from Chessie and Me, Teresa Kogut, and Beth and Matt Twist from Heartstring Samplery and “the Boardroom”.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon and settled into my room for an evening of stitching. On Friday morning, the first thing on my agenda was a morning of shopping at the Attic. I didn’t take as many pictures this time; I just tried to take it all in and enjoy the beautifully displayed models.

The event kicked off Friday night with Linda from Chessie and Me. She presented a beautiful reproduction sampler which I happen to own. It once belonged to a friend of mine. When she died in 2021, her samplers went to a thrift shop type store along with some of her other possessions. I don’t think the family understood how valuable the samplers were. The shop that acquired them didn't understand either. You see, the frames were old and not in great shape and the pieces appeared quite dirty (you would be a bit worse for wear if you were two hundred years old too!) I managed to acquire two of her antique samplers for the low, low price of $5 each! About a year and a half ago I decided to take this sampler and have it reframed. With a little love and care, this sampler will easily live another 200 years! I took it to Lynn’s of Madison for the reframing. That’s where I ran into Linda and as soon as she saw it, she fell in love with it too and asked if she could reproduce it. I was thrilled that she would want to do this. And now this sampler can be enjoyed by others. I would imagine that Linda will eventually make this pattern available to all, but for now, it is just available to those who attended the retreat.

May I present to you…Eliza Guy. The antique is on the left and the reproduction is on the right. The original was stitched in 1845 when Eliza was ten years old.

Saturday was all about Teresa Kogut. She too brought an antique sampler reproduction for us. We received the kit to stitch the sampler. Teresa also shared a pattern for a biscornu using motifs from the sampler. In the afternoon, we did punchneedle with Teresa and that pattern was for the berry bowl that was in the sampler.

On Sunday morning, we received our project from Beth and Matt Twist. Matt is such a delight! He told us about his transition from the corporate world to now operating a home business. 

Beth’s project was based on motifs from an antique sampler. The sampler, Susannah Boyd, is available exclusively from the Attic. Beth designed a needle roll for us.

 Matt designed and made a beautiful tray for us with the stag from the sampler. Note the inlaid mother of pearl butterflies.

Even though Jean has been battling a serious illness, she spent time with us each day. It was clear that needlework, stitchers, and events like this give her the energy to keep going.

Great teachers, great weekend, great fun!