Mercy Sampler

Teach me to feel anothers woe
To hide the faults I see
That mercy I too others show

That mercy show to me

I think this is a lovely sentiment to begin the New Year. I enjoyed stitching this sampler immensely and not only because the verse is so appealing to me personally. It's just such a simple sampler. It's small, measuring only 8 1/2 inches square and was so easy to stitch in hand. It also uses only two thread colors which meant much fewer tangled threads in me sewing box.

The colors came so easily, as well. The moment I saw Gentle Arts Portabella I instantly fell in love with the color. It was such an elegant blue-grey and so beautifully variegated. I stitched this sampler during the holiday season, and with so much frenzy around me and such an udemanding sampler as this was a blessing.

As soon as the sampler is framed it will hang with "Mercy" doll. When I chose the fabric for her dress I wanted a pattern that was simple but the colors of this particular fabric were too bright, black and what looked to aqua. I bleached it in an attempt to lighten the colors some and to my surprise the little flowers became brown and blue, almost identical to the colors in the sampler. Obviously these two pieces were meant to be . . .

I'm putting needle and thread away this weekend and working on a little paper project. As all the holiday decorations begin to come down my house is feeling empty and I'm already looking forward to St. Valentine's Day. Hopefully I'll be able to share that with you next week. Perhaps it will be my first tutorial to share with all of you.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Edit: Mercy Sampler and "Mercy" Doll are now both available as e-patterns for purchase on My Designs page or feel free to e-mail me.

Winterberries Free Pattern

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I thought that if any of you could find time between shopping and finishing off the left over pumpkin pie you might enjoy stitching my Winterberries free pattern. It's the start of the holiday season and though I don't feel festive just yet I intend on starting some holiday decorating today to hopefully foster the holiday spirit.

This pattern was stitched on a scrap of 30ct R & R linen using all Gentle Arts threads and it measures about 4 inches square. I plan to sew it into an ornament and have the fabric and ribbon all picked out but am waiting until the kids go back to school on Monday. I was anxious to share it, though, and try out my new idea. I would like to try something a little different with my free patterns. Winterberries will be my test run and hopefully some of you are willing to be my lab mice :)

On the Free Patterns page, below the photo of Winterberries, there is a link (a little bird to be precise). Click on the link and a PDF of the pattern should open in a separate window. From there you can either print the pattern or download the file onto your computer. I've tried this on all three computers in the house and it's worked each time. Of course, that's no indication it will work for everyone else. If you have any difficulties downloading the pattern e-mail me and I will send you the PDF file as an attachment. Provided everything works out as planned, though, I think this will be a much better way to share my patterns with all of you. The PDF file is just a simpler version of my PDF patterns for purchase and should give everyone a much clearer chart to stitch from. If there are too many issues or if all of you just prefer it I'll go back to the way I did it before. I do hope it works, though. I have plans to convert all of my older free patterns to this format as well, so fingers crossed.

Be sure to let me know what you think!

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway. My little partridge still needs a home for the holidays.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Euphemia Myles Finishes

Dora was kind enough to send me a photo of her finish of Euphemia Myles Sampler. She stitched it on 36ct R & R Creme Brulee using all of the suggested threads. Instead of the embroidery on the bottom she added some motifs from my June Blooms free pattern using Gentle Arts Woodrose. Isn't her finish exquisite? I adore the hand stitched quilt binding and am now anxious to try it for myself.

Her timing was impeccable since I have just finished framing my Euphemia Myles Sampler. The frame has been sitting for weeks in my craft room; I just couldn't seem to find the time. I'm not sure where to hang it, which might explain my procrastination. For now it is sitting on our entertainment cabinet, right behind the X-Box console. With four children and a husband who loves all the latest technology my house is an interesting blend of both old and new. I would love a truly prim house but between the building blocks, sippy cups and endless electrical cables my home is more of a hodge podge. I can't complain though. I have a wonderful family and I can't help but smile when I see my son's latest Lego creation perched proudly on the mantle right next to my antique iron stone.

I haven't picked up needle and thread since finishing Cora Lipton's Marking Sampler. My hands have been happily busy but they are aching to stitch again. Josephyn Sayer has been sitting for over a month now almost completed. I had hoped to have her finished and released by Thanksgiving. I suppose I still can but I hate working under a deadline. So much of my life is scheduled, right down to the minute, or at least it seems. I even wait to use the bathroom until it seems my daughter is least likely to get into trouble while I do (any mother of small children will know of what I speak). For me stitching has to remain the one thing I do when my heart tells me to, not the clock or calendar. I realize I have yet to post a photo of my stitching on Josephyn Sayer. When I take it out to stitch next (very soon) I will snap a photo of it first.

Until then I wish you all the best.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Cora Lipton's Marking Sampler

I have finally finished my little marking sampler. It was an absolute joy to stitch. Though I doubt I could do it often, it was wonderful to sit down and just stitch without worrying about counting stitches or constantly having to look back to a chart. I must confess that I did cheat, or at least try to. When I began stitching the cursive alphabet up top of the sampler it became obvious I was going to have trouble fitting a full alphabet. I did pull up my pattern maker software and try to configure it in such a way that I could include the entire alphabet. I couldn't figure out how to do it without frogging stitches so I left it as is. I have seen many antique samplers with incomplete alphabets so I imagine I am in good company in just simply running out of room.

In this sampler I also experimented with intentionally pulling stitches so that the piece would look as if it were worn through time. I left out a couple of letters and a few of the borders are incomplete and I purposefully left blank most of the lower part of the sampler. In a few places I pulled the thread under in the back to secure it and then pulled it back out through the front in the last place I had stitched leaving a little of the thread hanging to make it look as though the stitching had come undone. Again, I doubt I could do this regularly but it does give the sampler a very old feel to it.

The threads are lovely. I used Gentle Arts Picnic Basket, Gentle Arts Toasted Barley and Gentle Arts Wood Trail as well as Crescent Colours Green Onion and Crescent Colours Onion Skin. They are beautifully faded colors of brown and green with Crescent Colours Green Onion being the most subtle. It mostly appears as white but there are slight hints of a very pale green. I adored working with the thread. I didn't intend to stitch the entire cursive alphabet in that particular color but once I started stitching with it I didn't want to stop. The linen is a scrap of 30ct R & R Reproductions Flax. It's a smaller pattern and not much linen is needed.

When the sampler was finished I signed the bottom Cora Lipton. For a week's worth of evening stitching my husband and I were watching Band of Brothers on DVD. I have an affinity for war films and it is a wonderful mini-series. Lipton is the last name of one of mine and my husband's favorite characters. I can't explain it but the name got stuck in my head and it just seemed . . . right. Cora was simply a first name that I liked. It is odd how we come up with these things isn't it? Wrapped up in this little sampler is a memory of my life that will now always come to mind when I look at in years to come. I imagine each and every one of you can say the same thing about things you have stitched. It doesn't always occur to me as I'm stitching but it is true that every stitch carries with it a little piece of the women (or man) stitching it of that moment in her life.

I finished the piece by folding over the edges and binding it with a blanket stitch. I've considered stitching a ribbon to the back and hanging it on the dresser in my bedroom. For the time being it looks lovely sitting on the table in the living room. I just have to remember to move it every time Mina climbs onto the sofa :)

If you would like to stitch this little sampler it is available as an e-pattern only and the cost is $7.50. The pattern is complete, showing all the "missing" stitches and a second chart included contains the rest of the cursive alphabet. Perhaps you could find a way to incorporate the remaining letters into the pattern? The sections where I chose to have "missing" stitches are marked. As always the pattern will include a color photo of the finished piece, both black and white and color charts to print and finishing instructions.

If you would like to purchase the pattern for Cora Lipton's Marking Sampler you can e-mail me or use the Paypal button on My Design page.

Now onto finishing the sampler I put aside when I started working on this one. There seems to be a never ending stash of designs to stitch but unlike with say, laundry, I love always having something waiting to be worked on :)

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Blest Art Sampler

Blest Art is finally finished! I've been busily (and happily) stitching away at it every free minute this past week, hence my lack of blogging. It is finished, though still unframed. I just couldn't wait to share it.

I have been working on this piece for awhile now, stopping from time to time to work on another piece, but then dutifully returning. The design is somewhat whimsical (for me anyway) which I've come to like in it. As I said before, the border was a bit of challenge to design and I had to go back and tweak it a few times after I had started stitching. I do like it, even though it is a bit wonky. I had difficulty choosing how to design the vine border between the first to lines of the alphabet. I'd considered stitching a simpler version of the outer border but in the end decided on a stem stitched vine with a few little leaves added in cross stitch. Finding the perfect color white was challenging as well. Thank goodness for Gentle Arts latest thread releases. The color looked perfect online and I ordered it right away but still I had my doubts. When my package from Gentle Arts finally arrived the color was even better than I had originally thought. Of course I opened the package minutes before the children were due home from school with hours left before I could stitch with it. I think I showed a great deal of patience that day though I do admit to rushing through the evening cleaning. GA Cornhusk is a wonderful color as well. It's a little bright and I was skeptical at first but as I began stitching it won me over quite quickly

The colors are Gentle Arts Cornhusk, Weeks Dye Works Onyx and a new color from Gentle Arts Antique Lace. It was stitched on 30ct R and R Reproductions American Chestnut and finished measures approximately 12 inches square.

The verse is one of my favorites. Be my ambition to excel in the blest art of doing well. I adore the sentiment and hope I in my own life take care to do well in all that I choose to do.

The pattern is available for purchase as either a printed or e-pattern. You can visit My Design page or e-mail me directly for more information, pricing, and to order. I have one more finish to show you (what I worked on while waiting for my thread to be delivered). Hopefully I will find the time to post it tomorrow; for now the time has come to start preparing dinner. I hope you enjoy the pattern and please let me know what you think of it.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Hollow Wreath Free Pattern

I do know that in fact the wreath is not hollow :)

But it was when I designed it. I only added the year after I had finished stitching the wreath. I had a little of the linen left over from Blest Art and designed this in order to practice my stem stitch. I wanted to know if I could stitch a circle. Perhaps a little more practice . . . but I'm happy with it. I could not have managed to place that one leaf over the stain in the linen if I had tried and to have had it been stitched with that little bit of brown in the thread. It looks just as if the thread has bled over time.

It was stitched over two on 30ct R & R Reproductions American Chestnut using Gentle Arts Espresso Bean. When choosing a black for Blest Art I considered almost every black colored thread I owned. There are more than one might have thought. Dark Chocolate, Tin Bucket, Blackbird, Onyx, Kohl, Mascara . . . and Espresso Bean which was my second choice for Blest Art. I decided to use it here intead and it had the perfect amount of brown for this particular cut of the linen. The free pattern shows a backstitch where I put a stem stitch. A backstitch would look lovely too as would initials in place of a date. You can find the free pattern here or use the link on my sidebar.

Only two days until Emma and Jem return from New York and only two weeks now until school starts again. I think I have enough #2 pencils, lined paper, composition notebooks, binders and school glue to start my own stationary store. Of course I'll have completely run out by December. There is something equally sad and exciting about the end of Summer . . . but I have to admit I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of Autumn.

I hope all of you enjoy this month's free pattern and remember I love to see everyone's finishes. Before the children return I am hoping to have finished stitching the border on Blest Art and I'll post a picture as soon as I do.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Euphemia Myles Sampler

Fair warning, this post has quite a few photos in it. Even with today's "point and shoot" cameras I am a wretched photographer. Stitched on 30 ct this sampler is also larger than I'm used to stitching and photographing. It certainly wasn't easy to "stitch in hand" which is my preferred way to stitch. It's also very sunny today which surprisingly isn't the best condition for taking photos. Some colors in the sampler are also very light shades which blend into the linen.

This is basically my way of saying these photos aren't particularly good and trust me the sampler looks better in person. I've included a lot of photos in hopes that at least one ends up looking like the sampler I stitched.

The sampler isn't terribly large, only 160 stitches square, but I chose to stitch it on 30 ct so it's almost 12 inches square finished. The linen is R & R Reproductions French Vanilla, a beautiful color and perfectly aged as is. All of the threads are Gentle Arts and most of the colors are very subtle. The Gentle Arts Garden Gate stands out nicely. The Gentle Arts Roasted Marshmallow blends beautifully with the linen. It's hard to make out in the photos. I told you I was no good at taking pictures :)

I've always loved the aged look of antique samplers and part of that (I think) comes from the fading in the threads. I think over time the colors just all begin to blend into one another which is hard to replicate. I've been wanting to try for awhile and I'm happy with the results.

There are three alphabets, some numbers as well as a signature and date. The name is fictional. I've always felt a little odd just making up a name but on this sampler it felt right.

I had originally designed the sampler intending to leave an unstitched area at the bottom. I think leaving the sampler "incomplete" also lends to a more aged look. At the last minute (this morning) I decided to add some feather stitching. There wasn't a lot of planning with this sampler. It came together on its own. What was particularly fun was "choosing" where to use what colors. I knew the border would be black/grey and I knew I wanted most of the stitching to be blue. I used very little of the lighter shade of gold because it is very subtle. Other than that I just began stitching with one color and when I finished a letter and didn't have enough thread to finish the next I went onto another color.

It was a lot of fun to stitch. Very relaxing. But of course whenever I get close to finishing one design I begin putting together the next. I'm going to show a sneak peak of the colors for that one soon.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

June Blooms Free Pattern

I do enjoy designing and stitching these truly primitive designs. It's not a conscious choice but I always tend towards them this time of year. While my life takes a decided shift towards complete and utter insanity during Summer Vacation the simplicity of these designs are a welcome respite. I'm still waiting on the fabric to sew this into a little pinkeep. Click here to see it. Isn't it lovely?

I can't keep a garden for anything. A few years ago I stopped at a garden center and asked for the most resilient, hardest to kill plants they had. I bought a few and only one lasted longer than a month. I joke the only think I can grow is children. The closest I'll ever get to a garden of my own is a stitched one, which is fine by me.

The flower stems are done in a stem stitch that I freehanded; a simple backstitch would work well too. The colors are GA Garden Gate, GA Copper and CC Khaki Mocha and the linen was a R & R 30ct from my stash. If you would like to stitch it for yourself the pattern can be found here. Let me know what you think . . .

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Eyelet Alphabet Sampler

So many antique samplers I have seen have an alphabet comprised of eyelet stitches. I've always loved the way they looked. The stitches are so delicate and add a wonderful texture. I don't have much experience with working eyelet stitches. The last sampler I designed I added a few here and there just to get some experience and I adored the way they came out. I decided then to simply throw myself into the deep end and start working on a sampler I'd designed inspired by several antique ones I'd seen pictures of. I don't actually own any antique samplers of my own but they're on the "wish list" my husband keeps for anniversaries and birthdays and the like. There's a full alphabet of cross stitches and a partial alphabet of eyelet stitches as well as three borders of eyelet stitches. By the time I've completed this sampler I will certainly have plenty of practice!

I struggled with choosing the blue thread for the design. I tend towards blues that actually appear more grey. This is truly a blue and I was a little cautious as first; I wasn't sure if it was just too bright. The more I stitch with it the happier I am with my choice. It's very unusual for me not to change thread colors several times once I've begun stitching. How the tread looks stitched can be so different than how the skein itself looks. I am flirting with the idea of stitching a few letters with a lighter shade of white, only slightly darker than the background color actually. The thread barely shows up on the linen, but the texture of the eyelet stitches makes them slightly more noticeable. I've always loved the tone on tone effect and with some older samplers the threads have blended through age beautifully into the background. I'm not sure if I can achieve that effect or how it will look if I do but once I've stitched up the letters I'll post a photo and get some opinions.

The linen is new to me as well. It's a color from R&R that I've never worked with before. For another sampler I designed I wanted an aged white linen so I simply ordered a bunch of colors from several different lines. It's amazing how they all appear white when viewed alone, but when put together you can see subtle differences. One is yellow-white, one is blue-white . . . also different thread colors bring out different tones in the white. This particular linen is a grey-white and while it didn't work for the other sampler it looked wonderful with these colors.

I have no idea when this sampler will be completed. Eyelet stitches are a little more time consuming than I had anticipated so it's slow going. I promise more pictures as I make more progress. Until then, best wishes and happy stitching!

xoxo

Jennie Lynn

Journey's End

Let thy love my spirit cheer as my guard, my guide, my friend, lead me to my journey's end.

Now I have to admit this one gave me some trouble. (See earlier post regarding the trials and tribulations of hand dyed threads). Now with my husband being so busy the framing is going to take longer than I anticipated. So I decided to put up a picture of it unframed. I was just waiting for a nice sunny day since I was having a lot of trouble getting the white to show up. It shows up quite nicely against the dark linen but my photography skills are somewhat lacking. Then again I'm a stitcher, not a photographer, so maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

Let me know what you think of the finished piece; feedback is always welcome. I was going to wait until it had been framed to put the pattern up for sale, but if you're interested simply click on the Patterns to Purchase link on my sidebar or e-mail me.

xoxo

Jennie Lynn