Sampler progress

Hi all!  Just jumping for a quick update before I head out to the dentist (eek!).  For about a month, I've devoted the majority of my stitching time to working on "Maria Selby Humphrey - 1831" from Blackbird Designs.  I saw the original on display at last year's Nashville (or was it St. Charles?) TNNA show.  Humphrey is a family name, so I had to have it!

I've been stitching it mainly with the called-for threads, but I ran out of Heirloom Gold and decided that there were enough variations in brown on the sampler that I could get away with using some limited edition overdyed threads instead of waiting to order more Heirloom Gold.  I think it's looking fine so far:

I hope to finish this in the next week or so, and then I'm going to start stitching a reproduction Spanish sampler that I have charted.  I haven't settled on the colors for that one yet, so I'm looking forward to a trip to Mom's soon for a color consultation.

I also wanted to share a few more photos from the Pocahontas Jacket.  Here's a sweet little cat motif:

And I HAD to share those crazy mosquitoes:

This is the last photo of the section that I was working on.  Everything you see, except the rightmost flower and the round worm in the right corner is my accomplishment for our trip.  I feel like it was a decent chunk of work!  We have been promised an email showing photos of the actual ceremony in early April.  I wish I could be there in person, and I can't wait to see what the finished piece looks like!

That's it for now.  I'm off to the dentist, and this evening I shall comfort myself with stitches in my Humphrey piece.  Next week, I will share some photos from our trip to Delaware and the symposium at Biggs Museum.  Til then, stay crafty my friends!

Snowy Williamsburg

Good morning, strangers!  I came on here to blog about my trip to Delaware this weekend, and realized that I hadn't shared about our trip to Colonial Williamsburg two weeks ago yet.  I guess I posted so many pictures on Facebook that it just felt like I'd already blogged about it.  Soooo...

Continuing the trend we started with our Nashville trip, our travel plans were disrupted by snow.  Instead of leaving for Virginia on Monday, as originally planned, we left Sunday evening, ahead of the predicted snow.  Monday was spent mostly hanging out in our hotel room, although I could not resist bundling up for a two hour walk around the colonial site (which was around the corner from our hotel).  I basically had the place to myself.  It was a beautiful, if rather uncomfortable, walk around the snowy colonial capital city:

I always love seeing the palace, although the snow obscures this photo a bit:

This is apparently a permanent sign, and it really made me laugh:

It's a good thing this poor little guy had a nice wool coat to keep him warm!

We were in Williamsburg to work on the jacket that will be worn for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe.  You can read about it here.  Tuesday through Thursday mornings, we got up and headed over to the Costuming department for Colonial Williamsburg.  There were always several ladies there working, with several pieces laid out on various frames for us to work on.  Mom and I sat at the same piece every day, and it was like magic watching the piece come alive.  Here's some of what I stitched:

All of the motifs on the jacket represent animals or plants native to North America.  Mom worked on a tobacco plant for most of our time there.  Some of my favorite motifs included cats, dogs, owls, a big turkey, and a possum.  My least favorite was probably the mosquito.  It was cleverly done, but, you know, mosquito.  I thought I had some more photos taken, and I'll have to dig around and see if I can find them to share later.

Our wonderful week of 'volunteer' stitching came to a rather rushed end when we discovered that the forecast called for ice and sleet back home on Thursday evening.  So we cut our stitching short on Thursday morning, did not detour for one of our usual side trips on the way home, and rolled into Durham just as the sleet was starting.  Mom still had another hour to go to make it home, but thankfully did not have any problems.  My brother and sister both lost power for a few days thanks to that storm.  :(

That's all for now.  I will be back on in a day or two to share some of my personal stitching progress, and I also want to tell you all about our visit to the symposium and needlework exhibit in Dover, Delaware this week.  (I am writing from our hotel room before we head back home today, just ahead of .... another snow storm).  Take care and stay safe and warm, my friends!