Farm House

Hi friends! I finished Farm House this week. What a pretty sampler this is. It is Madeleine's sampler.

Stitched one over one on 25ct cream Dublin linen

I made many color changes. I used DMC and VMSS I used VMSS Antique Var Lilacs for the birds and VMSS 1795 Faded Celery instead of DMC 833. The purple suggested in DMC, 553,  for the flowers was replaced with 3041 because it was nowhere near the cover picture. 543 was replaced with Ecru so it showed up on my linen. The front door to the house has almost a bluish color to it. I replaced 3799, a solid grey with 3768. It compliments the house color nicely now! The roof color suggested, 3787, was so wrong, I replaced it with 317. Finally, I stitched the windowsills up in 738.

As you can see, Madeleine has quite a long name, so I had to take out a few motifs and one bird. I also moved that remaining bird on the left up one. I once again left off some of the small diamond motifs. I like the simplicity of the sampler better this way when it is stitched one over one.

I am now stitching up BBD The Lily of the Valley. This is a class project from a BBD retreat that our friend Catherine has borrowed me. Thanks again Catherine! 😊 It is such a pretty piece. It does not give the DMC conversions, so I had to look those up. I only had two of the WDW flosses. It took me ages to settle on flosses and linen. Only to discover my perfect linen choice was 28ct not the called for 32ct. I just decided to stitch it one over one on the 28ct. Imagine that, huh?! 😉 I know. I know. So many of you do NOT prefer one over one, but I DO. What can I say? Right Carol?

I just finished an audio book, Songs of Willow Frost and what a good one it was! This was a new author to me. His name is Jamie Ford. This book intrigued me with the main character, a little Chinese boy who is an orphan in a Catholic orphanage. It was just so different than anything else I had read,so I wanted to read it. And it was different. I am glad I read it. It was good and interesting and I learned too.

Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.

Determined to find Willow and prove that his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigate the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.

Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping novel will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.

On Tuesday all three of the baby robins left the nest. How fun to watch Mom and Dad Robin teach the little ones how to live out in the big world.

Thank you for your kind words my friends. I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie